When? Sunday 22 November, 2 pm kick off (please note this differs from what was previously advertised)

Where? North Harbour Stadium, Outer Oval, Albany (please note this differs from what was previously advertised)

What happened last time the two sides met?

The 2019 Battles of the Bridge were played over the double header weekend. For two teams that pride themselves on being high-scoring machines, goals were not forthcoming, as the games finished 0-0 and then 1-1. 

What they say

Ben Bate, Northern Lights head coach

“There's lots of familiarity between the two groups, the players know each other really well. A lot of them play against each other and with each other in FFDP all year. The players know full well what they're up against and are preparing really well for it [the Northern Derby].

“I think just looking at the game purely from a point of view of the league, obviously we want to win the games that give ourselves the best opportunity to get into that home grand final. Obviously dropping the first two points against Capital wasn't ideal, so we're really focused on our end goal, which is getting to that grand final. So as much as it’s a big game for all the reasons that we've mentioned before, like ultimately it's just another game on the road to go to the end. Not winning the game would make it difficult to get to that grand final. Not undoable, but difficult. So we've got the right motivation there to get us through.”

Squads as at Friday 20 November

Northern Lights

18 Erin HUGHES (GK) 2 Arabella MAYNARD 4 Aneka MITTENDORFF 5 Saskia VOSPER 6 Nicole STRATFORD 7 Chloe KNOTT C 8 Malia STEINMETZ 12 Elizabeth SAVAGE 14 Lily JERVIS 16 Ava PRITCHARD 19 Sam TAWHARU 3 Rene WASI 9 Emma KETE 11 Jessica INNES 17 Mackenzie BARRY 22 Rose LUXTON

Auckland Football

1 Lily ALFELD (GK) 2 Jess PHILPOT 5 Emma LEAMING 9 Britney CUNNINGHAM-LEE 10 Ava COLLINS 17 Alosi BLOOMFIELD 18 Ella RUSS 19 Tayla O'BRIEN 22 Daisy CLEVERLEY 23 Rina HIRANO JPN 24 Liz ANTON (C) 7 Maisy DEWELL 11 Stella LAWSON 14 Emma PIJNENBURG 15 Laney STRACHAN 16 Kate HANNAY

Officials

Referee: Eric YU Assistant referee 1: Daniel NEVILLE Assistant referee 2: 4th official: William ROBERTS

Article added: Saturday 21 November 2020