Top clash goes FC Western’s way

With the New Plymouth Rangers not in action this week, the focus was on the local Premier League.

The two top teams faced each other at Onuku-Taipari Domain, with the visitors, FC Western, beating Moturoa 3-1 on Saturday.

The home team took an early lead through skipper Hayden Murray’s longrange effort, which FC Western keeper Nic Reive failed to get to.

Despite the early goal, Simon Gibson equalised in the 38th minute for FC Western to make the game level at halftime.

FC Western dominated the second half and a defensive mixup saw Moturoa goalkeeper Sam Westlake concede an own goal to put the visitors ahead on 56 minutes.

The win for FC Western was sealed by the prolific Connor Oliver-Rose five minutes later to maintain a top-of-the table position for the club.

New Plymouth Boys’ High School (NPBHS) had a comfortable 3-1 win over Inglewood.

Fergus Young (18 mins) and Jack Flood (33) put the school team 2-0 at halftime.

Ben Senior pulled a goal back on the hour mark for Inglewood before Zach Young (76) wrapped up the match.

NPBHS move ahead of Moturoa into second place, still with a 100 per cent record but behind FC Western on goal difference.

Kaitake came back from last week’s shock loss to Waitara to comfortably beat Woodleigh 3-0 at Sutherland Park.

The highlight of the match was a hattrick for Aaron Taylor scoring in the 9th, 33rd and 54th minutes. Kaitake remain in fourth place.

Eltham secured their second win of the season with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Waitara at Manukorihi Park.

Waitara missed their influential midfielder in Stephen Kibby and failed to hold on for a share of the points when

Ryk Ferguson scored for Eltham in the 80th minute.

Rangers were unlucky not to get a draw from their match against Peringa United at Merrilands Domain.

The visitors won 3-2 in a see-saw match which saw Peringa score first through Jacob Apeldoorn in the 8th minute before Rangers took a 2-1 lead.

Luke Snellgrove rose highest from a corner to nod home past goalkeeper Thomas Donlon for the equaliser six minutes later.

Sam Jiggins gave the home team the lead, sliding home a quality goal after a pinpoint pass from Oisin Ammundsen just five minutes later.

Apeldoorn equalised for Peringa just before the halftime break.

The game remained even with Peringa putting up an impressive defensive performance to continue to deny Snellgrove and Jiggins further chances.

The winning goal came after 70 minutes when Jayden Gally scored for the visitors.