Auckland Football have ended the Canterbury United Pride’s unbeaten run in the National Women’s League.

Auckland, the defending champions, came into the match looking to bounce back from their 2-0 loss to the Northern Lights on Tuesday night and they did so with a commanding 3-1 win over the Pride at McLennan Park in Papakura.

The Canterbury United Pride, who had won their first six matches to start the National Women's League season, went down for the first time in what was a re-match from last year's final. 

Auckland winger Paige Satchell set up a goal and scored another as the seven-time champions delivered their best performance of the 2018 season. The victory means Auckland and the Northern Lights, who defeated WaiBOP 3-0 today, move to within four points of the Canterbury United Pride at the top of the table. The top two teams advance to the final in December.

Auckland Head Coach Tracy Wrigley said this sort of performance is what her and her support staff have been expecting from their squad.

“We have had patches of good play [this season] but it was just a matter of putting it all together, we delivered a good team performance today,” Wrigley said. “We were particularly cohesive going forward and hopefully we can start to put the goals on the end of that sort of attack.”

Canterbury United Pride Alanna Gunn paid credit to Auckland for the way they took the game to her team.

“Auckland came out today and started by far the stronger team which put us on the back foot a little bit,” said Gunn. “It took us a little while to get into the game and the way Auckland played throughout the 90 minutes put the game out of reach.”

Auckland took the lead early when Satchell used her pace to good effect. The Football Fern got in behind the Pride defence and laid off a ball for Grace Jale to knock in, in the 14^th minute. 

The hosts took that lead into the break and soon after Satchell made her presence count once again. She went around a defender with relative ease and then slotted past Pride keeper Vic Esson in goal.

The Pride were reeling at 2-0 down but responded when skipper Annalie Longo scored in the 52^nd minute. The Football Ferns legend gave her team hope of remaining unbeaten but Auckland soon ended that idea.

With 20 minutes to play midfielder Jade Parris hit a powerful strike from long range which beat Esson. It was Parris’ fifth goal of the season and her most important as Auckland recorded an important win over the form team of the competition.

Across town at McFetridge Park, the Northern Lights continued their momentum with a 3- 0 victory over WaiBOP Football.

The Gemma Lewis coached team opened the scoring in the 14^th minute when NZ U-20 rep Dayna Stevens was played in nicely by Jane Barnett and she slotted home. 

WaiBOP, who picked up their first win of the campaign last week with a 3-0 win over Central, battled hard but Northern controlled the game. 

Northern scored twice in the last 11 minutes to put the match to bed. The first came through Nicole Stratford in the 79^th minute. Barnett delivered a cross from a short corner and Stratford headed home.

Minutes later Stratford was in the thick of the action again. She put in a low cross into a dangerous area and WaiBOP’s Ashley Weld scored an own goal in the 89^th minute.

Stratford, the Northland FC representative, said she was happy with the team performance as they controlled the game well.

“We were patient in our build up and moved the ball forward well to get into scoring positions,” she said. “I think 3-0 was a scoreline which reflected how we played and we deserved it.”

Auckland, Northern and Capital were the winners in Match Week Seven in the National Women’s League as the race for the final tightens up. 

National Women’s League Match Week Seven

Northern Lights 3 (Dayna Stevens 14’, Nicole Stratford 79’, own goal 89’)
WaiBOP Football 0
HT: 1-0

Auckland Football 3 (Grace Jale 13’, Paige Satchell 48’, Jade Parris 68’)
Canterbury United Pride 1 (Annalie Longo 52’)
HT: 1-0

Capital Football 3 (Sarah Gregorius 10’, 84’, Anna McPhie 40’)
Southern United 1 (Shontelle Smith 13’)
HT: 2-1

BYE – Central Football

For the National Women’s League table and other information please click here

Article added: Sunday 28 October 2018