United showed enough glimpses in a 2-2 against South Wagga in the opening week of the competition but backed it up big time with a 4-1 win over Young at Rawlings Park on Sunday.

The Lions entered the clash in early season form too, after trouncing Henwood Park 5-0 in the opening round.

But Wagga United backed up some off-season hype with a dominant performance, finding the back of the net through four different avenues to goal in a strong win.

"It was avery good win, the boys really deserved it. I'm very happy," new Wagga United coach James Samson said.

"The boys were exceptional playing our game. I think the first 20 minutes we were a bit rusty, trying to rush it a little bit but after that they really got back into our rhythm.

"Young were definitely missing players but even in saying that, our boys responded and kept it at our tempo the whole game.

"Credit to Young, they really gave it to us in the first half an hour of the game, it was looking like it was going to be a good match. They had some really exceptional players. But our boys held out, playing the smart football that we wanted to. We didn't really get out of second gear until the second half and they really took it to them.

"It was really pleasing we've got three guys up front and then one on the bench and all four of them managed to bag a goal today."

Matt Crawford, Tom Sutton, Aaron Harley and Rob Halhead all scored in the win, while Brady Sim and Damon Hardinge impressed through the midfield.

Wagga United led 1-0 at half-time but then upped the ante in the second half to run away with a big win.

"Absolutely blown away, for me, not having to say much for the last 10-15 minutes was exactly what I wanted," he said.

"I said to the boys at half-time, we're not playing to our top level yet, we haven't been out of second gear and it was really time to turn it up and put this game to bed and I thought we responded really well and I was very pleased with them."

"I'm very happy with that going into training this week. There is always stuff to refine and get right again and we definitely want to follow it on."

Meantime also at Rawlings Park on Sunday, South Wagga continued their strong start to the year with an entertaining 5-4 win over Henwood Park.

Tumut 2 d Cootamundra 0

Wagga United 4 d Young 1

Hanwood 3 d Tolland 0

South Wagga 5 d Henwood Park 4

Leeton 1 drew with Lake Albert 1

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: