The tenth match week of the National Women’s League takes place this weekend, find out what’s in store with the official preview. All three matches are set to take place on Sunday with Auckland hosting Central, Canterbury United Pride welcoming Northern Lights and Capital travelling to WaiBOP. Southern United sit out the action with the bye.

Auckland Football vs Central Football
McLennan Park, Auckland
Sunday 18 November, 1pm
#NWL #AFvCE

Referee: B Baker
Assistant Referees: R Greenbury, B Kroonenberg
Fourth Official: C Dickson-Hards

Squads

Auckland Football: 16. Corina Brown (GK), 2. Kate Carlton, 4. Caitlin Pritchard, 5. Nicole Mettam, 8. Tessa Leong, 9. Jade Parris, 10. Lily Taitimu, 11. Sam Muirhead, 13. Kathryn-Anne Gow, 14. Bianca Stiles, 15. Leah Mettam, 18. Emma Phelps, 19. Lucy Carter, 23. Kim Nottingham, 24. Jade Morrissey, 26. Rebecca O’Neill
Coach: Tracy Wrigley

Central Football: 1. Aoife Gallagher-Forbes (GK), 2. Kate Watson, 3. Jenna Barry, 4. Jana Niedermayr, 5. Maggie Pedersen, 6. Sophie Crewe, 7. Lydia Bamford, 8. Florence MacIntyre, 9. Mikaela Boxall, 11. Casey Ralph, 12. Nicole Vunipola, 13. Charlotte Lancaster, 14. Jendi Frank, 15. Jessica Mason, 16. Aimee Atkins
Coach: Barry Scullion

Lowdown

Auckland appear to be in a fight with cross-town rivals Northern for the right to take on Canterbury United in the final. With Northern set to visit Canterbury on the same day, a home clash against the league’s bottom-placed side is a perfect opportunity for Auckland to make some significant headway in their title bid. If Auckland were to win and Northern were to lose, the neighbours would be level on points and Auckland would crucially still have a game in hand. Tracy Wrigley’s side therefore have every reason to unleash the full force of their attacking power on Central, especially as goal difference could prove important with that race for the top two looking so tight. They will have to do so with a significantly weakened squad though as six players are in New Caledonia with the Football Ferns. For Central, their main goal for the closing weeks is to avoid the wooden spoon and they are currently battling that quest out with WaiBOP.

Quotes

Tracy Wrigley (Auckland coach): “I think this is a hard one to judge because the dynamics change a little bit when you lose a bit of your leadership and the core of the team. From the starting team last week, we’ve retained five players. It means some of the others will have to step up and take some leadership and there’s a few of them who have started to do that which is healthy for their development. It’s just a matter of whether everything comes together in the first week without those players or it takes another week.”

Donald Piper (Central assistant coach): “It’s another opportunity for us to go and test ourselves against the very best. Auckland are well organised and coached well and obviously have a great player depth so we’re looking forward to another tough game but an opportunity for our girls to continue to learn and grow. Coming off a disappointing performance last weekend, the group has trained really well. A lesser group of girls would have given up by now and it’s really positive to see their attitudes continue to remain high.”

Canterbury United Pride vs Northern Lights
English Park, Christchurch
Sunday 18 November, 1.30pm
#NWL #CUvNL

Referee: AM Keighley
Assistant Referees: C Bremner, C Bolster
Fourth Official: M Killick

Squads

Canterbury United Pride: 1. Una Foyle (GK), 3. Rebecca Lake, 4. Arna Roberts, 5. Annabel Gilchrist, 6. Chloe Jones, 8. Tahlia Herman-Watt, 11. Hannah Wong, 13. Whitney Hepburn, 14. Jasmine Donald, 15. Monique Barker, 16. Mel Cameron, 17. Cody Taylor, 19. Ellena Firth, 20. Kate Taylor, 21. Lily Bray, 22. Briar Guyan (GK)
Coach: Alana Gunn

Northern Lights: 1. Lily Alfeld (GK), 2. Claudia Bunge, 3. Greer MacIntosh, 4. Emma Turnbull, 5. Saskia Vosper, 6. Nicole Stratford, 7. Milly McWhirter, 8. Dayna Stevens, 9. Ava Pritchard, 10. Jane Barnett, 11. Helena Kelderman, 12. Liz Savage, 14. Niamh Quann, 15. Vegas McCaroll, 16. Hannah Reddy, 18. Emily Couchman (GK)
Coach: Gemma Lewis

Lowdown

With these sides occupying the top two places on the table, this is undoubtedly the match of the round and a win for either would be massive in terms of their title hopes. If Northern take nothing from the game though, they can kiss goodbye to their chances of hosting the final and they would also have a major battle on their hands to even finish in the top two. So their only option is to adopt a positive approach and take the game to the leaders, which they did in the first meeting between the pair but a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal allowed Canterbury to run out 2-1 winners. The Pride would grab a similar result with both hands this time as that would go a long way towards wrapping up the minor premiership. It will be a special moment for Whitney Hepburn, who is set to make her 50^th appearance for the Pride – a remarkable achievement given she has only just turned 21. Hepburn and co will need to step up in the absence of captain Annalie Longo and goalkeeper Victoria Esson, both with the Football Ferns at the OFC Women’s Nations Cup. Northern will be without Malia Steinmetz for the same reason while Kate Loye and a group of U-17 internationals are also unavailable.

Quotes

Whitney Hepburn (Canterbury United): “It’s a tough game to have my 50^th cap in and it will be a really big challenge for us, especially because they’re one of the strong leaders in the competition. So it will be tough but it’s also exciting to be reaching that milestone in such a big game.”

Shane Verma (Northern Lights assistant coach): “The girls are on a good run of form right now and last week we battled hard against Capital to get a good result so we’re looking quite sharp. I think the depth of the regions is really going to be tested now and that’s what you want to see as players will get opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have had. The Pride have had a lot of success developing female players and have seven or eight away for either the U-17s or the Ferns so it just shows the depth they have in their region.”

WaiBOP Football vs Capital Football
Gower Park, Hamilton
Sunday 18 November, 2pm (please note this differs from the date originally scheduled)
#NWL #WBvCA

Referee: W McNeely
Assistant Referees: D Neville, J Lee
Fourth Official: A Wilson

Squads

WaiBOP Football: 23. Amy Harrison (GK), 3. Kate Williams, 4. Olivia Hooper, 5. Chloe Henderson, 6. Jayden Watts, 7. Emma Cawte, 9. Helen Talbot, 10. Ella Golding, 11. Lilly Muspratt, 13. Tiana Hill, 15. Grace Cox, 19. Ashley Weld, 20. Chelsea Elliott, 21. Sophie Daly (GK), 22. Lauren Henry, 24. Shae Brady
Coach: Michael Mayne

Capital Football: 1. Courtney Norman (GK), 2. Molly Woodhead, 3. Zoe Barrott, 4. Danielle Turton, 5. Sarah Alder, 6. Charlotte Wilford-Carroll, 7. Danielle Ohlsson, 8. Anna McPhie, 9. Emma Main, 10. Michaela Robertson, 11. Kennedy Bryant, 12. Tory Schiltgen, 13. Jemma Robertson, 14. Asha Strom, 16. Meisha Boone, 18. Natasha Ingram (GK)
Coach: Emma Evans

Lowdown

A loss to Northern last week has all but knocked Capital out of the running for the final but they do still have a mathematical chance and Emma Evans will not want to see her charges throw in the towel just yet. To keep their hopes at all alive, they will need to take maximum reward from their remaining four fixtures and hope other results go their way so there is simply no room for error on this trip to WaiBOP. In that regard, Capital are losing the services of their talismanic Football Ferns duo of Sarah Gregorius and Anna Green – both in New Caledonia for the Nations Cup – at the worst possible time and the depth of Evans’ squad will be tested. WaiBOP are in a similar boat as they are without Kelli Brown, Grace Wisnewski and Georgia Candy, as well as coach Michael Mayne and goalkeeping coach Max Tommy – all with the New Zealand squad at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay.

Quotes

Jasmine Quilligan (WaiBOP acting coach): “While these call-ups are disruptive to our campaign, it’s great to see there’s a pathway from local football to the international stage for coaches as well as players. The commitment from the squad this week has been exceptional with everyone putting in some hard graft to try and get the result we crave. We want to go out there and show our fans what we are made of.”

Emma Evans (Capital coach): “We were disappointed with the result from the Northern game and it makes the road to the final that much tougher now but we’re just focusing on what’s in front of us and that’s the WaiBOP team. There were definitely positives to take from the weekend’s game and now it’s about turning those positives into a full 90-minute performance which I think our team is fully capable of.”

BYE – Southern United

Article added: Friday 16 November 2018