Resurgence continues
The battle to secure third place in the Federation League – and Manawatu¯ bragging rights – looks to be going down to the wire after the weekend’s results.
Both North End and Palmerston North Marist won on Saturday, leaving North End still in third place on the ladder, two points ahead of Marist.
But Wanganui Athletic’s bid to stay with them faltered when they were shaded 1-0 at second-placed Napier Marist.
Unbeaten Havelock North Wanderers maintained their march to the title with a 4-1 win at New Plymouth Rangers.
The big mover on Saturday was Massey University, whose lateseason resurgence continued when they beat Red Sox 3-1 and climbed into seventh spot on the ladder, swapping places with Red Soxmanawatu¯ .
The students lost to Red Sox in their first game of the season, so to reverse that result was ‘‘very pleasing’’, said coach Donald Piper.
‘‘It shows we’ve grown quite a lot,’’ he added.
‘‘We were disciplined and structured in this game.’’
Ryan Noble netted twice for Massey and Michael Hilson also scored.
Sam Lee scored Red Sox’s sole reply in a game that coach Shane Rufer said his side could have won if they had scored first, but they hit the bar in their best chance and the advantage then went to Massey.
‘‘It was a good derby game, but in the second half we were not disciplined enough and that cost us,’’ Rufer said.
In the feature game at Memorial Park, Palmerston North Marist swamped Palmerston North Boys’
High School 9-0, frontrunners Nick Carrick and Josh Smith both coming away with hat-tricks.
But despite the lopsided final score the schoolboys were far from totally outclassed, especially in the first spell when they gave as good as they got, but couldn’t finish off some promising-looking breaks.
Marist led 3-0 at halftime, with Tom Viles, Kurtis Shortall and Jamie Lambe scoring their other goals, and Boys’ High, not for the first time this season, looking to be still in the game until the second 45.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak by Marist, their last victory also coming against Boys’ High.
At Skoglund Park, North End kept their nose in front in the race to finish third in the league when they beat Hokowhitu 2-0 through goals from Ryan Mcdermott and Michael Sheridan.
It was the second time North End had beaten Hokowhitu this season.
Both North End and Palmerston North Marist have only two games left in the season, with Marist needing to beat New Plymouth Rangers and Red Sox to stand a chance of finishing third after winning the league last year.
North End face Napier Marist and Wanganui City in their last two games and must drop points for Palmerston North Marist to have any hope of overtaking them.
■ In the Horizons Premiership, Massey University still lead the competition by two points from Levin despite suffering their second loss of the season, going down 2-1 to Hokowhitu reserves.
Red Sox reserves and Feilding United round off the top four.