Football Whanganui's goal scorer Vanya Apiata-Hodgkinson looks to secure the pass in her team's first win of the season against New Plymouth Girls High at Wembley Park on Saturday.
Football Whanganui's goal scorer Vanya Apiata-Hodgkinson looks to secure the pass in her team's first win of the season against New Plymouth Girls High at Wembley Park on Saturday.
It's taken a long time, the penultimate game in fact, but Football Whanganui have their first win of the 2018 GR Engineering Women's Federation League season after beating New Plymouth Girls High 2-1 at Wembley Park on Saturday.
Playing in a smaller environment as wet weather saw the match moved to one of the junior football fields, Whanganui went to a two player up front formation as Vanya Apiata-Hodgkinson really troubled the NPGHS defenders.
Alice Hetherington scored the opening goal after taking a penalty corner that was kicked back to her, burying the goal with a good left foot shot on the angle.
Apiata-Hodgkinson found the back of the net before the break when the NPGHS goalie made a mistake and deflected the ball back to her.
Whanganui made some changes at halftime, such as Paula Chittenden coming on and holding the ball in the midfield as the home side looked to protect their lead.
We deserved the three points, it wasn't one of those ones where they fluked it.
The Taranaki schoolgirls still closed to within a goal with the only score on the second half, although Whanganui coach Matthew Calvert said his team did a lot of off-the-ball work to keep NPGHS from getting many shots away.
Airini Ross-Spooner had an excellent match, while player of the day Rebekah Ngarteka-Knight really stepped up and put everything on the line, including taking a free kick shot to the face to protect the Whanganui goal mouth, which led to her being taken to hospital with suspected concussion.
The victory means Whanganui have matched their inaugural 2017 season record of getting one win and a draw in what has been a smaller competition this year with five teams, meaning less games.
"We had a really good game, we deserved the three points, it wasn't one of those ones where they fluked it.
"We adapted to that [smaller field] better than they did.
"We should have had the game out of sight by halftime, with the chances we created.
"Really pleased and proud for the girls."
The win in their 11th fixture gives Whanganui a boost in morale before their final game of the season this season against runnersup Moturoa AFC up at the Onuku Taipari Domain in New Plymouth.
"There's a few things we can improve on for then," said Calvert.
"It's good for them. Heard a lot of things where people have had their opinion of the team."
The match will kick off at 1pm on Saturday.
In other results from the weekend, the GJ Gardner Homes Wanganui Athletic Reserves were well beaten 6-1 by DFC down in Ashhurst in Saturday's Horizons Premiership round.
