Whakatāne Town senior men’s football team have started their season in fine style with a hard-fought win.

Competing in Baywide Division 1, Town played at Rex Morpeth Park, which has become quite a fortress for the side in recent years, picking up a 4-3 victory over Waipuna Rangers.

Town started strongly dominating the opening 25 minutes, however, they were able to find only a single goal through Sam Cox-Ellison.

The home side continued to dominate, however, Rangers pounced and managed to find the back of the goal to equalise after 30 minutes.

Six minutes later, they found the lead through a well-taken opportunity.

Town went into the second half behind but came out of the sheds firing and netted three goals in 10 minutes through Brendan Mitchell, Ricky Owen and Mitchell White.

Rangers replied in the 67th minute to narrow the gap to one goal but were unable to score an equaliser.

Town coach Jared McLaughlin said it was good to get the victory.

“We dominated the opening 25 minutes. It was good to get a victory to start the season.”

He said they had assembled a good squad again this season and wanted to give the competition a good crack.

Standouts were White and Liam Gordon for Town.

This weekend, Town heads to Rotorua where they will take on the lone Central Bay based side, Ngongotahā.

Ngongotahā started their season in style with a 6-3 win over Otumoetai.

Meanwhile, Whakatāne Town over 35s started their season with a 5-3 defeat at the hands of Outmoetai’s Lees Morgan.

Whakatāne Town Women’s team have moved up to the W-League this year, which features the best teams through Hamilton, Tauranga and Rotorua, but their opening clash was postponed because of Cyclone Vaianu.

In Baywide Division 2, Ōhope and Kawerau Sports drew 1-all, while Plains Rangers scored a 2-1 win.

The Baywide Women’s League featuring Plains Rangers, Kawerau and the Ōhope Sirens was also postponed due to the cyclone.