Defending champions Lae City Dwellers has maintained its winning run in the National Soccer League challenge after recording a 7-2 victory over Madang FC in front of a capacity crowd at Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium in Lae, Morobe Province on Saturday.
The victory sees Lae go clear at the top of the competition standings.
A moment of silence marked the opening of the match in respect of Madang player Emmanuel Airem’s father who recently passed away.
The two OFC Champions League 2018 participants then got their match underway with the home side expecting a tough encounter from the visitors from Madang.
“I was not really expecting anything big from the boys. Just the usual… I just wanted to go out and play their game and they performed to expectation against (I would say) a better opponent. So that’s exactly what they did,” Lae City Dwellers coach Peter Gunemba said.
And it was Madang who struck just five minutes into the match through Vanya Malagian to take an early 1-0 lead.
Solomon Island international Tutizama Tanito then opened the scoring for the home side when he scored from the penalty spot, setting off an avalanche of goals.
Midfielder Emmanuel Simon, who was later named the player of the match, was in stunning form creating most of the chances for strikers Raymond Gunemba and Nigel Dabinayaba who scored two each.
In the day’s opening match, FC Morobe Wawens beat Buang FC 2-1 to register their first win in the competition.