Some good news for Kiwi football fans has come out of England in recent days while several of the Football Ferns warmed up for their forthcoming matches against Scotland with eye-catching performances for their respective clubs.

After weeks of battling to overcome a knee injury that denied him the chance to play a full part in the All Whites’ intercontinental playoff against Peru, Chris Wood is finally showing signs of returning to the English Premier League with Burnley. The striker got through 70 minutes in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Blackpool and did enough to be included on the bench for a 1-1 draw with Southampton in proper league action over the weekend. Manager Sean Dyche will be desperate to have him available again as soon as possible as, despite holding their position in seventh, Burnley are on a 12-game winless streak and have scored more than once on only one occasion in that time.

In further positive news, All Whites captain Winston Reid appears to be nearing a first-team recall for West Ham United after making the bench for a 4-1 thumping at Liverpool. While not taking the field himself, Reid had a personal milestone to celebrate though as last week marked the anniversary of his first ever goal for the Hammers, a thundering header from a corner in a 5-1 FA Cup win over Burnley. Reid’s goals have been somewhat of a good luck charm over the years with West Ham winning all 10 matches he has scored in.

In the FA Women’s Super League, the Football Ferns pair of Anna Green and Olivia Chance were both heavily involved for their teams but experienced contrasting results. Green continues to make the most of the injury-enforced absence of Harriett Scott for Reading and started her second consecutive match, a comfortable 4-0 win over Bristol City. The Kiwi defender took part for just over 70 minutes and came close to getting on the scoresheet herself, curling an effort just over the bar midway through the first half.

Green will be pleased to have finally got some game time under her belt at an opportune moment ahead of the Ferns tour while Chance will likewise be full of confidence against Scotland. The 24-year-old has started the last five matches for Everton and her role as part of a midfield trio with Angharad James and Megan Finnigan has drawn praise from coach Andy Spence. “Those three girls are developing into a really good force and are taking confidence from knowing each other’s games,” he said. “There is a nice balance with left-footed players and right-footed players and, in both an attacking and defensive sense, they all know their roles and are prepared to do that work.” The accomplished triumvirate weren’t able to build on Everton’s three-game winning run against Arsenal though, falling to a 1-0 defeat. Chance was a constant threat to the title-chasing Gunners, driving forward with real purpose on regular occasions and nearly equalising early in the second half. She was put through on goal but was at a tight angle and saw her shot saved.

In the lower leagues, Clayton Lewis continues to find game time hard to come by in League One and was again an unused substitute as Scunthorpe United carved out a 1-1 draw at Bristol Rovers. In League Two, Steven Old has fought his way back to full fitness after a recent injury for Morecambe and played 90 minutes for the second week running as the Shrimps earned a 4-2 away win at Wycombe Wanderers, veteran Kevin Ellison scoring twice for Morecambe a day after his 39^th birthday. Outside of the Football League, All Whites goalkeeper Max Crocombe was left kicking his heels as Salford City’s clash with Tamworth in the National League North was postponed due to a frozen pitch. But he had plenty to do the previous week in an action-packed 2-2 draw against Bradford Park Avenue, in which the Ammies came back from two goals down to snatch a point. Salford are now second on the ladder but are being kept off top spot only on goal difference by Harrogate Town.

Outside of first-team football in England, Adam Mitchell has been starring in a great run for the Bolton Wanderers U-23s but was left frustrated as Crewe Alexandra claimed a 1-0 win in the northern section of the Professional Development League on Monday. Bolton came into the clash looking for back-to-back victories after edging out Burnley 1-0 last time out and were boosted by the presence of Championship regular Jan Kirchhoff, who  is making his way back from injury. Mitchell had a chance to score but couldn’t convert and was made to rue his miss as several other team mates also passed up opportunities. The young centre back has been an ever-present for the Wanderers development team in recent weeks and will hope to have done enough to be included in the first All Whites squad of new coach Fritz Schmid this month. He has an advantage over fellow promising defender Sam Brotherton in that regard as the Sunderland man has not seen much game time recently and remained on the bench yet again as the Black Cats drew 1-1 with their U-23 counterparts from Hull City.

In mainland Europe, Ryan Thomas has had some Kiwi company at PEC Zwolle with Elijah Just spending time at the Dutch Eredivisie club on trial. The New Zealand U-17 international has impressed the club’s technical staff and even been given the opportunity to train with the first team after his trial period was extended. “He has made such an impression on us in a month’s time that we wanted to see him for longer,” explained PEC technical director Gerald Nijkamp. “Elijah is especially good and reliable on the ball and that makes him a typical PEC player.” Just will do well to follow in the footsteps of Thomas, who continues to be one of the club’s top performers but has not been able to arrest an alarming dip in results since the turn of the year. Zwolle lost only two of their first 20 matches in all competitions but have been defeated in seven of the past nine, the latest being a 2-1 reversal at Heracles. Thomas was again a stand-out in the loss, finishing with a 90 per cent pass completion rate and making more tackles than any team mate. Tyler Boyd also suffered defeat in the Portuguese top flight as CD Tondela fell 1-0 to Sporting Braga for their third consecutive loss. The former Wellington Phoenix man started on the right hand side of midfield and played the whole match. Indeed, it wasn’t a good weekend for the Kiwi men in Europe with Tyler Lissette likewise ending on the losing side as IFK Värnamo were edged out 2-1 by GIF Sundsvall in Sweden.

In the women’s game, Amber Hearn has rediscovered her goalscoring touch at the perfect time with the Football Ferns about to take on Scotland in Spain. It has not been a vintage year in the German Frauen-Bundesliga for FC Koln and they have not even managed to find the net in a league game since mid-November. But Hearn finally put that right against SGS Essen, smashing home a loose ball in a goalmouth scramble to give her side the lead with her third goal of the season. Unfortunately, that’s as good as it got for Koln though as they succumbed to a late burst to lose 4-1. Fellow Fern Meikayla Moore has recently joined Hearn at Koln and lined up at right back in the loss. Staying in Germany, CJ Bott was on the bench for most of USV Jena’s 1-1 draw with Werder Bremen but was introduced late on to help hang onto the point, just their fifth of the campaign.

Across the Atlantic, Anthony Hudson’s Kiwi-laden reign at the Colorado Rapids started in earnest with a 2-0 loss to Toronto in the CONCACAF Champions League. New signings Tommy Smith and Deklan Wynne both made their competitive debuts for the Rapids but fellow All White Kip Colvey did not feature as he is currently nursing an injury. Smith and Wynne both played again in the second leg soon after with the former captaining the side to a scoreless draw that knocked them out.

Over at the Vancouver Whitecaps, Stefan Marinovic has been in outstanding form in pre-season and is in line to claim the number one jersey when the Major League Soccer (MLS) campaign kicks off this weekend. Myer Bevan does not appear to be as much of a feature in coach Carl Robinson’s plans after struggling for minutes in the pre-season games. Fellow Kiwi youngster Cory Brown has not been involved as he is trying to earn a deal with Vancouver’s United Soccer League (USL) affiliate, Fresno FC.

Also looking to impress is Kyle Adams, who is with Rio Grande Valley FC in the USL but spent time training this week with MLS outfit and parent club the Houston Dynamo. Jake Gleeson and Bill Tuiloma are both looking to break into the Portland Timbers line-up for the big MLS kick off and took steps towards that in their final pre-season match, both starting in a 3-2 win over Sporting Kansas City, for whom James Musa is on the books but didn’t feature. Musa has taken part in three other pre-season games but does not appear to be in the running for a starting berth when the proper action gets underway. Gleeson however is in outstanding form, pulling off a number of top-class saves in his hour on the pitch, while Tuiloma made an exit ten minutes earlier due to injury.

Michael Boxall was meanwhile warming up for the campaign by playing the full match as Minnesota United lost 2-0 to Columbus Crew in their final hit-out. They will be joined in the MLS by another countryman as the competition’s Kiwi contingent continues to grow with the signing of Elliot Collier by the Chicago Fire. The rangy striker stands at 1.93 metres tall and completed his deal after initially being picked up by the Fire in the MLS SuperDraft.

Away from the playing side, a couple of members of the Kiwi coaching community in the United States are about to embark on a fresh challenge after taking on exciting new roles. Simon Elliott was recently appointed as head coach of USL team Sacramento Republic while fellow former All White Jason Batty has been named goalkeeping coach for the newly-formed Utah Royals, who are set to compete in their inaugural National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) season. Elliott, who was capped nearly 70 times for the All Whites and featured in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, has stepped up from his previous role in Sacramento’s academy programme and is delighted to have done so. “My passion for the sport and my role with the club comes from working with players every day,” he said. “It is interesting and challenging but also immensely rewarding. Taking on this more senior role as we build towards MLS creates an opportunity for all of us, including our focus and success in our current season. I am grateful to the entire club and I couldn’t be more excited about the future of Republic.” General manager Todd Dunivant, whose own appointment was announced just a day earlier, believes Elliott is an ideal man for the job. “He’s going to have the respect of everybody right away,” he said. “He’s a guy that has leadership and he does it in a way that doesn’t say, ‘Hey look at me, I’m the big man,’ but everyone knows it.”

Elliott starred in the All Whites for many years with Batty, who earned nearly 50 caps and went on to work in the American college system before a spell as goalkeeping coach at MLS club San Jose Earthquakes. He returned to New Zealand to become Football Development Manager at the Auckland Football Federation but went back to the United States last year. Batty and Elliott are part of an ever-growing group of Kiwis coaching in North America that already includes Cameron Knowles (Portland Timbers), Stu Riddell (Northern Kentucky University), Neil Jones (Loyola University Chicago), Simon Eaddy (Canada Soccer) and Emma Humphries, Maia Vink and Andrew Peat (all Vancouver Whitecaps).

In South Africa, Jeremy Brockie’s wait to get off the mark for new club the Mamelodi Sundowns has continued, despite coming agonisingly close on a couple of occasions recently. The Sundowns took on the Free State Stars last week and took a point from a 1-1 draw but Brockie will have been disappointed not to find the net. The All White played for nearly 80 minutes and had two excellent opportunities to score, firstly from a one-on-one attempt that he put wide and then from a header which drew an outstanding save. He came up against previous club SuperSport United over the weekend but did not get the chance to make much of an impact, coming on for only the closing stages as a late substitute in another 1-1 outcome. Sundowns assistant manager Manqoba Mngqithi is confident Brockie will soon start finding the net. “He’s going to score a lot of goals for us but he must not rush,” he says. “He must not get desperate because he starts to do things that are uncharacteristic of him. We know he has the capacity to help us…everybody must be patient with him.”

Closer to home in the A-League, Kosta Barbarouses and Jai Ingham are about to go into a local derby with the Melbourne Victory on Friday night and warmed up for that clash with a 3-0 win over Adelaide United, Barbarouses playing the full match. Glen Moss was meanwhile an unused substitute as the Newcastle Jets defeated Brisbane Roar, for whom Dane Ingham did not feature in the match day squad.

There was a healthier Kiwi contingent for the Wellington Phoenix, who fielded Andrew Durante, Tom Doyle, Matt Ridenton and Sarpreet Singh from the start in a 1-0 loss at Central Coast Mariners. Michael McGlinchey replaced Singh just past the hour while Monty Patterson came on for Nathan Burns in the 73^rd minute and goalkeeper Keegan Smith remained on the bench. They will have a new coach to play for next season after confirmation that incumbent Darije Kalezic will not continue in the role past the remainder of this term.