Waitakere United let loose in round nine of the NZFC, unleashing nine goals on a hapless Canterbury United team at English Park yesterday.
While the win reinforces the attacking quality and threat posed by the O-League champions, it only served to compound Canterbury’s problems as they sit at the foot of the NZFC table with only
two points from nine games.
Six second-half goals, including seconds for Jason Hayne and Benjamin Totori which took the Solomon Islander to top equal with City’s Bryan Little in the golden boot race, gave
Waitakere their second victory at English Park this season following their earlier 3-1 win.
Canterbury’s start went from bad to worse when goalkeeper Adam Highfield was substituted following a suspected fractured eye socket injury, only to be followed by skipper Bill
Robertson who was sent off in the 67th minute for his second bookable offence.
Allan Pearce added to the rout making it 9-0 in the 89th minute before Rhodri Payne scored a consolation goal for the home side.
The victory extends Waitakere’s winning streak to six games and sets up an exciting local derby/top-of-the-table-clash next week against last year’s champions and league leaders Auckland
City.
Third placed Wellington United battled their way to a 2-0 win over Waikato FC in sweltering conditions at Newtown Park to keep up their title hunt.
It took a thirty yard screamer from Steve Gulley to break the deadlock in the 58th minute before Raf de Gregorio made sure of the three points with his second goal of the season
one minute later.
In New Plymouth Hawkes Bay had to claw their way back from going a goal down in first half stoppage time to defeat Manawatu 3-1.
Campbell Parkin, Graham Fyfe and Jarrod Smith, provided second half answers to Gouzalo Nieres opening strike for Manawatu and solidified their spot in fourth place.
In Saturdays match Auckland city cruised to a 3-0 victory over Otago United to maintain their one point lead on city rivals Waitakere United.
Salesh Kumar scored his first goal of the campaign on twenty minutes after replacing Solomon Island international Henry Fa’aorodo in the squad.
Grant Young and Chad Coombes added second half goals to close out the scoring and set the scene for a mouth watering clash next weekend with Waitakere United.