The Wanderers outclassed minor premier Culburra with a 3-1 win in Saturday’s major semi-final at Ison Park.

Culburra certainly had the wood over their opponents during the regular season, having won all three of their previous encounters, the most recent being a 5-1 thrashing just last week.

However, if they were still feeling the affects of last week’s loss, it certainly didn’t show on the field.

The Wanderers looked like they were there to win it from the first whistle, but Culburra were clearly not going to go down without a fight.

An evenly-matched first half saw several chances come from both ends.

The likes of Corey Ryan and Jack Miller had their chances for Culburra, while Brandon Perosh and Billy Zappas looked dangerous for Manyana.

However, the shots seemed to go just wide of the net, over the crossbar or safely into the keeper’s hands.

While there was no lack of opportunities, it began to look like they may go into halftime at nil-all, but Manyana had other ideas.

A free kick from Tim Dixon on the stroke of halftime held up in the box and after a scramble for the ball, it was Jackson Daley who managed to slip it through for the first goal of the afternoon.

With the whistle sounding almost immediately after, the Maynana were able to take a 1-nil advantage into the break.

While the goal looked to have tipped things slightly in Manyana’s favour, they were not able to enjoy their lead for long once play resumed.

Culburra equalised barely two minutes into the second half when Corey Ryan pulled the trigger from outside the 22-yard box and his shot found its way into the back of the net.

The rapid response seemed to serve as a wakeup call for Manyana and they soon settled back into the grind.

They were rewarded for their persistence in the 60th minute when Brandon Perosh hammered one straight at Culburra keeper Scott Merivale.

Merivale was able to deflect the first shot, but could not stop the return fire from Billy Zappas, who smashed it into the top corner to put his side back in front.

Culburra managed to stay in the hunt, without ever looking too likely to equalise, but Manyana put the result beyond doubt in the final 10 minutes.

Sam Walklate, who had come one as a substitute became the hero when he scored their third goal, much to the delight of their screaming fans.

Manyana coach Matt Tooley said he was absolutely over the moon with the result.

“It’s certainly a huge turnaround from the week before,” Tooley said.

“I knew we would have to be a lot better and that was by far the most competitive we’ve been against them all year.

“Player attitude was a key factor, they really wanted to win to make amends for last week and that’s exactly what we did.”

Tooley said the addition of Tim Dixon and Brandon Perosh, who were rested from last week’s game made a huge difference as they were their two best players.

He was also full of praise for Mark Dixon, who was given the task of marking danger man Corey Ryan.

Manyana are now awaiting the result of next week’s preliminary final to determine who they will play in the decider.

They were without their leading goal-scorer Rohan Daley on Saturday, but the week off will do him a world of good, with Tooley confident he will play in the grand final.

Tooley was not too fussed about who they will play and they will just take it as it comes.

“I’ll enjoy watching the game next week and then we’ll plan from there,” he said.

“I just hope we can play like that [against Culburra] again and if we do, I think we’re a good chance,” he added.

Culburra coach Tony Gauci was disappointed with the result, but remained optimistic about their chances of bouncing back.

“We just didn’t really gel, they (Manyana) were keen and didn’t really give anyone a chance,” Gauci said.

“It’s back to the drawing board now, so hopefully we can get a couple of days of sunshine and have a good training run during the week,” he added.

Culburra were in the same position last year and managed to regroup and win the title and Gauci believes they can do it again.

“I’m still pretty confident we can get there, hopefully this game gives us a bit of a wakeup call,” he said.

“We just need to forget about it, move on and rise to the challenge next week.

“If we’re good enough, we’ll do it and I’d really like to be able to defend our title.”