Waitakere United showed pace and pedigree to beat Otago United 6-0 in the ASB Premiership game played yesterday at the Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Otago had to rely on hard work and courage to compete against the Oceania League team which recently beat a Tahiti side 10-nil, and coach Neil Emblen's side now goes on to compete next week against Auckland, then plays the Fijian side Ba.
Otago, in contrast, has a week off, and coach Richard Murray's side badly needs that time to recover.
Laying their bodies on the line against Waitakere dramatically increased United's list of wounded players.
Adding to the already missing defenders Tristan Prattley, and Craig Ferguson, Lonnie MacGregor was precluded after a late fitness test, then in yesterday's match, striker Ant Hancock was stretchered off to hospital with a head wound, and Morgan Day sustained a similar head injury.
Day returned with a blood-stained bandage around his head, and epitomised the spirit that kept the game scoreless for half an hour.
"Morgan's got a real boxer's cut in his upper eyelid. He did well to keep going and stroked some quality passes around," Murray said.
Central midfield produced high-mileage matches from Darren Overton, Mike Cunningham, Day and Tom Connor. Their touch and ability to keep the ball gave Otago some respite as Waitakere strung passes around the width and breadth of the stadium's perfect surface.
Hancock looked dangerous until he clashed heads after 35 minutes and was replaced by Sam Mepham, who competed well alongside Seamus Ryder, and Harley Rodeka, who added bite, but tended to risk ball possession.
Similarly, centreback Jude Fitzpatrick led a spirited defence that launched last-ditch tackles, but too often possession was lost in clearing the ball and Waitakere's swarming attack returned with interest.
Frontrunners Roy Krishna, Ryan De Vries and Allan Pearce, who all had pace to burn, were like Waitakere guns held to the heads of Otago's defence.
All scored quality goals.
Pearce got two, Sean Lovemore also got on the scoresheet, and both centreback Fitzpatrick and keeper Peter Evans slumped in despair when an own goal was also registered.
Emblen recognised the massive effort that Otago had put in, "but we are pretty good at wearing teams down," he said.
And that was essentially what happened.
Murray praised his team's spirit but acknowledged failings.
"We have to learn to keep the ball, and not make silly passes that put us on the back foot,' he said.
Possibly the most telling factor of all was that Waitakere fielded almost exactly the same team as it did last year to beat Otago, and that from a squad of 30 culled from New Zealand and overseas.
In contrast, Otago's squad bears no resemblance to last year, and has the consistency of freshly made tissue paper.
However, one smiling Otago supporter was general manager Barry Van Gorp, who reckoned there were nearly a thousand spectators roaring Otago onwards.
If that number continued to grow, "we will have a steady base to work from," he said.
