The National Women’s League continues on Sunday when the fourth match week takes place across the country, find out what’s in store with the official preview.

WaiBOP Football vs Canterbury United Pride
John Kerkhof Park, Cambridge
Sunday 6 October, 12pm
#NWL #WBvCU

Referee: Robbie Marris
Assistant Referees: Heloise Welch, Jack Booth
Fourth Official: Jared Lamberth

Squads

WaiBOP Football: 1. Georgia Candy (GK), 4. Caitlin Byrne, 6. Annaliese Heuvel, 7. Olivia Hooper, 9. Emma Sizer, 10. Richlyn Tuhoro, 12. Shannon Trebes, 13. Paige McCloskey, 14. Maddison Ollington (c), 15. Stella Neems, 17. Grace Wisnewski, 19. Natasha Reiri, 21. Amy Harrison (GK), 22. Rhiannon Jones
Coach: Nico Girard

Canterbury United Pride: 1. Una Foyle (GK), 2. Marisa van der Meer, 3. Rebecca Lake (c), 4. Lara Wall, 6. Chloe Jones, 7. Gabi Rennie, 8. Tahlia Herman-Watt, 9. Jayda Stewart, 10. Annalie Longo, 11. Macey Fraser, 12. Lauren Dabner, 15. Britney-Lee Nicholson, 19. Ellena Firth, 20. Kate Taylor, 21. Nicola Dominikovich, 23. Bel van Noorden
Coach: Alana Gunn

Lowdown

WaiBOP received a welcome confidence boost last weekend by picking up their first points of the campaign and scoring five goals in the process. They picked the best possible timing to hit form as they are now set to face the reigning champions and will need to adopt the same positive mindset to get anything out of this game. The omens do not look good as Canterbury will be fresh after having the bye and are yet to concede a goal, while firing in ten at the other end in just two games. In contrast, it took WaiBOP three matches to find the net and they have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their three fixtures. Anything other than an away win here would therefore be one of the most noteworthy results of the season so far.

Quotes

Nico Girard (WaiBOP coach): “It was great for the players to get a win, it highlights all their hard work up to date. With the heavy squad rotation it was nice to get new players in there and watch how they performed. The expectation is quite similar to any other game, we expect the players to compete for 90 minutes and look to improve on last week’s performance.”

Northern Lights vs Central Football
Allen Hill Stadium, Auckland
Sunday 6 October, 1pm
#NWL #NLvCE

Referee: Nadia Browning
Assistant Referees: Caley McNeely, Rebecca Blakeman
Fourth Official: Bridget Baker

Squads

Northern Lights: 1. Lily Alfeld (GK), 2. Arabella Maynard, 3. Rene Wasi, 4. Aneka Mittendorff, 5. Saskia Vosper (c), 6. Claudia Bunge, 7. Chloe Knott, 12. Liz Savage, 13. Dayna Stevens, 14. Lily Jervis, 16. Ava Pritchard, 18. Emily Couchman (GK), 19. Kelli Brown, 20. Greer MacIntosh, 21. Emily Oosterhof
Coach: Shane Verma

Central: 1. Brooke Bennett (GK), 2. Freya Partridge-Moore, 3. Kate Bennett, 4. Jana Niedermayr, 5. Jessica Gates, 6. Tyler Wood, 7. Eve Barry, 8. Florence MacIntyre, 9. Natalie Olson, 10. Sophie Crewe, 11. Charlotte Lancaster, 12. Samantha Woolley, 13. Peta van Hattum, 14. Abby Rankin, 15. Helen Talbot, 20. Aoife Gallagher-Forbes (GK)  
Coach: Barry Scullion

Lowdown

Remarkably, both these sides conceded five goals last weekend but the Lights were at least able to salvage something from the high-scoring chaos by taking a point from their visit to Southern. Central will meanwhile be disappointed to have let their best chance yet of picking up some points slip them by with a 5-2 loss at home to WaiBOP. They at least managed to get on the scoresheet though, something they had failed to do in their previous two games. Barry Scullion will be hoping to continue to pose more of a threat going forward and will feel his side can get something from a Lights defence that was breached on so many occasions last time out.

Quotes

Shane Verma (Northern coach): “We controlled the tempo quite well last week and created a fair few chances but just lacked that clinical edge in the final third. We need to keep the girls focused this weekend, every team that we play in this league is going to be difficult so we have to keep the performance standards to our high levels. So if we can do that and be patient in our possession play then we should be fine.”

Barry Scullion (Central coach): “This is our third away trip of the campaign so far and we know Northern are a fantastic team, no doubt they’ll be challenging at the end of the year. We have some positives to take from last weekend, we got our first goals and just need to limit the goals we concede. We know we can take something from this game so we’ll go in with the mindset of trying to cause an upset, being the underdog in this fixture.”

Auckland Football vs Southern United
McLennan Park, Auckland
Sunday 6 October, 2pm
#NWL #AFvSU

Referee: Anna-Marie Keighley
Assistant Referees: Hillary Osborne, Dirrenesh Thirukumar
Fourth Official: Wendy McNeely

Squads

Auckland: 2. Genevieve Ryan, 3. Elizabeth Anton, 4. Rebekah van Dort, 5. Maisy Dewell, 6. Stephanie Skilton (c), 7. Britney Cunningham-Lee, 8. Tessa Leong, 9. Jade Parris, 15. Emma Leaming, 18. Chloe Marthe, 19. Lucy Carter, 20. Jaedeci Uluvili, 22. Sophie Dyer, 25. Alisha Perry (GK), 26. Sophie Bradley, 30. Rivalina Fuimaono (GK)
Coach: Nic Downes

Southern United: 3. Kelsey Kennard, 4. Mikaela Hunt (c), 5. Lena de Ronde, 6. Samantha Baldwin, 7. Chelsea Whittaker, 8. Renee Bacon, 9. Shontelle Smith, 10. Amy Hislop, 11. Emily Morison, 14. Hannah Mackay-Wright, 15. Tahlia Roome, 16. Jade Middleditch (GK), 17. Ruby Anderson, 20. Erin Roxburgh, 22. Kirsty Hayr, 24. Samantha Richards (GK)
Coach: Ignacio Sande

Lowdown

It’s been a stop-start beginning to the campaign for Auckland as the 2017 champions posted a win on the opening weekend but did not get a chance to build on that as they had a bye the following week. They then missed the chance to make up ground on the leaders by being held to a 3-3 draw at Capital, who were yet to pick up a point. Nic Downes will have been disappointed to score three goals on the road and still fail to win so will be looking for more defensive solidity this weekend. Auckland would traditionally be favourites at home to Southern but the visitors are topping the table and appear capable of posing a genuine title threat this season so will be in confident mood on their trip to the big smoke.

Quotes

Nic Downes (Auckland coach): “Our first two games were on the road so everyone is pretty excited about playing at home. Obviously, you get the home field advantage and we will hopefully get a good crowd down there cheering us on as well. Southern have had a really good start and have definitely shown they can score goals, which is exciting to see from a league point of view. We’ve done our homework on them and know what to expect but we want to go out there and impose how we want to play in front of our home fans.”

BYE – Capital Football

For more information on the National Women’s League please click here

Article added: Friday 04 October 2019