The sixth match week of the National Women’s League takes place with a unique double header over Labour weekend, find out what’s in store with the official preview. Canterbury United and Southern United will face each other twice in three days while WaiBOP and Central will do the same. Auckland and Northern played out the first instalment of their double header with a scoreless draw on Thursday and will meet again on Tuesday evening. Capital will sit out all the action with a pair of byes.

Canterbury United Pride vs Southern United
English Park, Christchurch
Saturday 20 October, 1pm
#NWL #CUvSU

Referee: M Killick
Assistant Referees: C Bremner, R Clink
Fourth Official: R Preston

Southern United vs Canterbury United Pride
Sunnyvale Park, Dunedin (Please note this differs from the venue originally released)
Monday 22 October, 2pm
#NWL #SUvCU

Referee: L Robinson
Assistant Referees: C Smith, C Marsh
Fourth Official: C Campbell

Squads

Canterbury United Pride (from): 1. Victoria Esson (GK), 2. Marisa Van Der Meer, 3. Rebecca Lake, 4. Arna Roberts, 5. Annabel Gilchrist, 6. Chloe Jones, 7. Gabrielle Rennie, 8. Tahlia Herman-Watt, 9. Jayda Stewart, 10. Annalie Longo, 11. Macey Fraser, 12. Amelia Abbott, 13. Whitney Hepburn, 14. Jasmine Donald, 15. Monique Barker, 16. Melanie Cameron, 17. Cody Taylor, 18. Rebecca Gillett, 19. Ellena Firth, 20. Kate Taylor, 21. Lily Bray, 22. Una Foyle (GK), 23. Blair Currie (GK)
Coach: Alana Gunn

Southern United (from): 16. Jordan Woodward (GK), 2. Zoe Thomas, 5. Britney-Lee Nicholson, 7. Shontelle Smith, 8. Ruby Anderson, 9. Tahlia Roome, 10. Kirsty Hayr, 11. Kelsey Kennard, 12. Coral Seath, 14. Lara Wall, 15. Emily Morison, 17. Chelsea Whittaker, 19. Mikaela Hunt, 23. Renee Bacon, 24. Jade Middleditch (GK), 26. Mikayla Gray, Lena De Ronde, Amy Hislop, Georgia Brown, Olivia De Ronde, Samantha Baldwin, Nieve Collin
Coach: Ignacio Sande

Lowdown

Canterbury made it four wins in a row with a come-from-behind 2-1 success over the Northern Lights last weekend and are the only side in the competition to boast a perfect record. Despite notching another three points, some chinks in their armour were exposed though and it was only Northern’s failure to make the most of their opportunities that prevented them from ending the Pride’s winning run. Southern will be encouraged by that as they drew with Northern and will feel they have just as good a chance of toppling their South Island rivals in this pair of local derbies. Canterbury will need no reminder of the threat posed by Southern as they suffered one of the upsets of the season at their hands last year, falling to a 2-1 loss on their own patch. Second-placed Auckland are now only a point behind the Pride – albeit having played one more match – and appear well-poised to capitalise on any slip-ups so if Canterbury don’t take any points from the double header then they could well see themselves replaced at the top of the table. Southern are also in need of a positive result or two if they are to keep in touch with the leading pair.

Quotes

Alana Gunn (Canterbury United coach): “Having the double header brings some good challenges, we can select two squads and introduce some players who haven’t been able to pick up appearances yet. That’s good because we have a deep squad and I think we will be just as effective in the second game as the first game. It’s just about managing their workloads over the weekend and making sure we can mentally get them up for two games because they’re going to be very tough games. They’re our neighbours so we know them well and we’re going to have to bring our A-game.”

Mikaela Hunt (Southern United): “We’re really looking forward to heading up to Christchurch because we know they’re really strong at home and have a really good environment, which is always exciting to play in and feels quite professional. The training has been good this week and we just can’t wait to get into it and redeem ourselves from the pre-season game we had against them.”

WaiBOP Football vs Central Football
Massey University, Palmerston North
Saturday 20 October, 2pm
#NWL #WBvCF

Referee: B Baker
Assistant Referees: J Marshall, S Gosai
Fourth Official: A Turner

Central Football vs WaiBOP Football
Massey University, Palmerston North
Monday 22 October, 1pm
#NWL #CFvWB

Referee: M Archer
Assistant Referees: J Marshall, Z O-Zaing
Fourth Official: A Turner

Squads

WaiBOP Football (from): 1. Georgia Candy (GK), 3. Kate Williams, 4. Olivia Hooper, 5. Chloe Henderson, 6. Jayden Watts, 7. Emma Cawte, 8. Stella Neems, 9. Helen Talbot, 10. Ella Golding, 11. Lilly Muspratt, 12. Kelli Brown, 13. Tiana Hill, 14. Richlyn Tuhoro, 15. Grace Cox, 16. Grace Wisnewski, 17. Kim Maguire, 19. Ashley Weld, 20. Chelsea Elliott, 21. Rylee Godbold (GK), 22. Lauren Henry, 24. Shae Brady, Toni Power, Sarah Monteith
Coach: Michael Mayne

Central Football (from): 1. Amelia Simmers (GK), 2. Freya Partridge-Moore, 3. Jenna Barry, 4. Mackenzie Barry, 5. Maggie Pedersen, 6. Sophie Crewe, 7. Lydia Bamford, 8. Florence MacIntyre, 9. Charlotte Lancaster, 10. Anna Robson, 11. Jessica Mason, 12. Jendi Frank, 13. Jana Niedermayr, 14. Tyler Wood, 15. Nicole Vunipola, 16. Aimee Atkins, 20. Carina Flannagan (GK), Casey Ralph, Charlotte Hunt, Kate Watson, Aoife Gallagher-Forbes, Mikaela Boxall
Coach: Barry Scullion

Lowdown

These are the only two teams yet to earn any points and this weekend provides them with their best opportunity to finally get off the mark. WaiBOP will go in as favourites as they have a better record at both ends of the park than Central, scoring four times and conceding 18 across their four games. Central have fared far worse, finding the net only once but picking the ball out of their own on 31 occasions. With a push for the top two clearly beyond them and the nearest side seven points away, it would appear WaiBOP and Central are battling it out to avoid the wooden spoon and this weekend is likely to all but decide who claims that unwanted mantle. Due to ground unavailability in their region, WaiBOP have ceded home advantage to Central for both matches and the hosts will look to make the most of that. They will need to be at their best as WaiBOP have been getting closer to pulling off a result, scoring three times in a loss to Southern before going within seconds of upsetting Capital.

Quotes

Donald Piper (Central assistant coach): “I think this week’s double header presents the best opportunity for both sides to get something out of a match and I’m sure they’ve looked at the video footage and worked really hard as we have this week to ensure they’re ready to go for the weekend. We’re under no illusions as to the quality they possess and how difficult the game will be but we have strong self-belief and we’ll stay focused. We’re determined to continue our growth and look forward to giving them another competitive match. We need to be more clinical in front of goal and it goes without saying that we’ve conceded a lot of goals so we definitely need to strengthen up and be more assured at the back. We’re determined to do that and it should be a great series across the long weekend.”

Northern Lights vs Auckland Football
QBE Stadium, Auckland
Tuesday 23 October, 7.15pm 
#NWL #NLvAF

Referee: AM Keighley
Assistant Referees:  W Roberts, B Kroonenberg
Fourth Official: B Baker

Squads

Northern (from): 1. Anna Leat (GK), 2. Claudia Bunge (c), 3. Kate Loye, 4. Aneka Mittendorff, 5. Saskia Vosper, 6. Nicole Stratford, 7. Malia Steinmetz, 8. Dayna Stevens, 9. Samantha Tawharu, 10. Maggie Jenkins, 11. Jane Barnett, 12. Liz Savage, 14. Emma Turnbull, 15. Vegas McCaroll, 16. Arabella Maynard, 17. Helena Kelderman, 18. Emily Couchman (GK), Hannah MacKay-Wright, Rose Luxton, Laney Strachan, Greer MacIntosh, Milly McWhirter, Ava Pritchard
Coach: Gemma Lewis

Auckland (from): 16. Corrina Brown (GK), 2. Bernadette Goulding, 3. Liz Anton, 4. Rebekah Van Dort, 5. Nicole Mettam, 6. Stephanie Skilton (c), 7. Britney Cunningham-Lee, 8. Tessa Leong, 9. Jade Parris, 10. Paige Satchell, 11. Samantha Muirhead, 12. Sarah Morton, 13. Kathryn-Anne Gow, 14. Bianca Stiles, 15. Leah Mettam, 18. Emma Phelps, 19. Lucy Carter, 20. Grace Jale, 22. Genevieve Ryan, 23. Kim Nottingham, 24. Jade Morrissey, 25. Nadia Olla, 26. Jenna Dodd
Coach: Tracy Wrigley

Lowdown

With both sides looking to chase down Canterbury at the top of the table and secure a place in the final, the importance of this match cannot be overstated. A loss would be more damaging to Northern though as they are already three points behind their cross-town rivals and cannot afford for that to go out to six, especially if Canterbury extend their winning run. That would cut the Lights worryingly adrift of the all-important top two and leave their title hopes hanging by a thread. Gemma Lewis is therefore likely to adopt a positive approach under the floodlights on Tuesday and would be delighted to see her side’s attack fire as that is proving to be an area of concern. Northern have a respectable return of 12 goals across their five games but nearly all of those have come against teams in the bottom three, the Lights striking just once in their three matches against fellow title contenders. Thursday’s night nil-all draw was their second stalemate of the campaign and it won’t be easy to breach an Auckland rearguard that has conceded just twice so far.

Quotes

Gemma Lewis (Northern Lights coach): “We were disappointed because I feel like we should have taken more away from that game than a point. We didn’t finish our chances again and that seems to be a running theme this season but the rest of the performance across the park was really good. We had lots of possession and did well defensively so were happy with most things but disappointed that we didn’t come away with more than a draw.”

Tracy Wrigley (Auckland coach): “I thought we probably let them dictate the game for most of the first half and they caused us a few problems that we didn’t really solve until we got an opportunity to sit down and talk. I feel like we were able to be a bit more constructive in the second half and certainly the game opened up.”

BYES – Capital Football

Article added: Friday 19 October 2018