The eighth match week of the National Women’s League takes place this weekend, find out what’s in store with the official preview. Two matches are set to take place on Saturday with WaiBOP hosting Canterbury United Pride and Capital Football welcoming Central Football while the Northern Lights will travel to Southern United in the only game set for Sunday. Defending champions Auckland Football sit out the action with the bye.

WaiBOP Football vs Canterbury United Pride

Gower Park, Hamilton

Saturday 3 November, 1pm

#NWL #WBvCU

Referee: N Browning

Assistant Referees: D Neville, J Lee

Fourth Official: C Dickson-Hards

Squads

WaiBOP Football: 21. Rylee Godbold (GK), 3. Kate Williams, 4. Olivia Hooper, 5. Chloe Henderson, 6. Jayden Watts, 7. Emma Cawte, 8. Stella Neems, 9. Helen Talbot, 13. Tiana Hill, 14. Richlyn Tuhoro, 15. Grace Cox, 19. Ashley Weld, 20. Chelsea Elliott, 22. Lauren Henry, 23. Amy Harrison (GK), 24. Shae Brady

Coach: Michael Mayne

Canterbury United Pride: 1. Victoria Esson (GK), 3. Rebecca Lake, 4. Arna Roberts, 5. Annabel Gilchrist, 6. Chloe Jones, 10. Annalie Longo, 11. Hannah Wong, 13. Whitney Hepburn, 14. Jasmine Donald, 15. Monique Barker, 16. Mel Cameron, 17. Cody Taylor, 19. Ellena Firth, 20. Kate Taylor, 22. Una Foyle (GK)

Coach: Alana Gunn

Lowdown

Title favourites Canterbury have just suffered the first defeat of their campaign in losing 3-1 to Auckland and coach Alana Gunn will learn much about the resilience of her players as they look to respond to that setback. The draw has been relatively kind to the Pride as they look to return to winning ways and anything less than three points against WaiBOP would be a major surprise. Michael Mayne’s side have just one victory to their name and failed to build on that in conceding three unanswered goals to Northern last weekend. But they will draw confidence from Auckland proving the Pride are beatable and will relish being back on true home soil for the first time since the opening day. Both squads will be understrength with the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup robbing them of several key players.

Quotes

Michael Mayne (WaiBOP coach): “I feel like this week’s game is a real test to see if we are able to cope with a strong outfit again. Based on our performance in the last round against the Pride, I want to see how our players have developed in certain areas. We are going to need to be at our absolute best in terms of discipline and focus. While I have a strong sense of focus towards developing our region’s top female players, this business is about results so the aim is to get points from the top team.”Victoria Esson (Canterbury United): “It was disappointing to lose but, to be honest, Auckland were the better side on the day. But it’s a 12-round season so we just have to put that one behind us, take learnings from the game and move on. It’s probably not a bad thing to lose mid-season, it keeps us in check and makes sure we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”

Capital Football vs Central Football

Memorial Park, Petone

Saturday 3 November, 2pm

#NWL #CAvCE

Referee: W McNeelyAssistant

Referees: B Buchanan, H Osborne

Fourth Official: J Williams

Squads

Capital Football: 1. Courtney Norman (GK), 2. Molly Woodhead, 3. Katie Barrott, 4. Danielle Turton, 5. Sarah Alder, 6. Charlotte Wilford-Carroll, 7. Kelsi Rutene, 8. Anna McPhie, 9. Emma Main, 10. Sarah Gregorius, 11. Kennedy Bryant, 12. Tory Schiltgen, 13. Caelin Patterson, 14. Asha Storm, 15. Anna Green, 18. Ronisa Lipi (GK)'

Coach: Emma Evans

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

Coach: Barry Scullion

Lowdown

Capital have shown good character to stay in the title hunt and, with both of their byes already out of the way, are well placed to launch an assault on the top two in the second half of the season. But with Canterbury, Northern and Auckland all showing few signs of dropping off the pace, Capital cannot afford many slip-ups over the coming weeks and the full three points will certainly be a must this weekend. Goal difference could well prove crucial at the business end of the season so Capital coach Emma Evans will be wanting a ruthless display against the leakiest defence in the league, especially as Mackenzie Barry will be missing for Central due to her U-17 World Cup commitments. Capital will be without Maya Hahn for the same reason.

Quotes

Emma Evans (Capital coach): “Central are our local rival and we always know it’s going to be a physical challenge and a competitive game. I think each team always has a little bit more to play for when you’re playing against your local rival. Central haven’t had a season where they’ve been winning a lot of games but they’re a young squad and they showed determination to play right until the end in our last game. I’m expecting them to be more of a challenge than when we first played them and we need to make sure we don’t underestimate them.”

Southern United vs Northern Lights

Sunnyvale Park, Dunedin

Sunday 4 November, 1.30pm

#NWL #SUvNL 

Referee: D Woulahan

Assistant Referees: C Campbell, C Marsh

Fourth Official: C Smith

Squads

Southern United: 16. Jordan Woodward (GK), 4. Mikaela Hunt, 5. Lena de Ronde, 7. Shontelle Smith, 9. Chelsea Whittaker, 10. Kirsty Hayr, 11. Coral Seath, 12. Emily Morison, 14. Lara Wall, 15. Tahlia Roome, 18. Ruby Anderson, 20. Britney-Lee Nicholson, 21. Mikayla Gray, 22. Olivia de Ronde, 23. Georgia Brown, 24. Jade Middleditch (GK)

Coach: Ignacio Sande

Northern Lights: 1. Lily Alfeld (GK), 2. Claudia Bunge, 3. Talisha Green, 4. Emma Turnbull, 5. Saskia Vosper, 6. Greer MacIntosh, 7. Malia Steinmetz, 8. Milly McWhirter, 9. Samantha Tawharu, 10. Jane Barnett, 11. Helena Kelderman, 12. Liz Savage, 14. Ava Pritchard, 15. Vegas McCaroll, 16. Niamh Quann, 18. Emily Couchman (GK)

Coach: Gemma Lewis

Lowdown

Southern’s loss to Capital last weekend has dealt a near fatal blow to their title hopes and they now appear unlikely to break into the top two. It is still a mathematical possibility but, in order to keep their slim hopes alive, Southern will need to take maximum reward over the next couple of weeks and they don’t have an ideal pair of fixtures to do so. Their upcoming matches are against Northern and Auckland, both of whom have lost only once so far. The hosts will take heart from their last meeting with Northern though, in which they held the title contenders to a scoreless draw. It is also a good time to play Northern with the visitors missing coach Gemma Lewis and seven players – including Football Ferns Anna Leat and Maggie Jenkins – to the U-17 World Cup.

Quotes

Shane Verma (Northern Lights assistant coach): “The handover from Gemma has been pretty smooth and the girls know how we want to play. We’ve lost seven girls to the U-17 World Cup but we’ve got some new players coming in who have been training with us from day one so the feeling is really good and the girls are really positive. We only had a few sessions leading into our first game against Southern so we’re much better prepared this time. From our last few games, our aim is to be clinical in front of goal.”

BYE – Auckland Football

Article added: Friday 02 November 2018