DOUBLE DOWN - Round 6 Review \ Round 7&8 Preview

Double Header action from Capital v Central TJF Photos

It's coming up to that time of the year in the National Women's League - the Double header round. Instituted last season when the league was expanded to two rounds as a convenient way to ensure the league is wrapped up nicely before Christmas, but before we look to that lets look at last weeks games.

WEEK 6 REVIEW

Canterbury United Pride 1 Northern Lights 3

The match of the round, well in my mind, both teams were unbeaten and Canterbury hadn't even conceded a goal, but Northern's goal after 26 minutes meant despite four clean sheets they weren't going to equal the record of five in a row set by Auckland in 2005. 

Northern Lights welcomed back Maggie Jenkins, who had been in the USA checking out some potential universities. They set about ensuring it was themselves that were the only unbeaten team in the league with a comfortable 3-1 victory and really now should be favourities to win the league.

Southern United 4 Capital 2 

Report from Southern United Fan Nick follow him on twitter @nikbol 

Coming off the bye, Southern United were looking to keep in touch with the leaders. However, they knew Capital were more than just a bump in the road after a nine goal thriller in the corresponding fixture last season. 

Much like that game, this one was a game of two halves. With Southern playing with a strong breeze at their backs in the first half, it looked as though they were going to rue an early penalty miss. But with the pace of their forward duo of Ruby Anderson and Amy Hislop causing the Capital backline problems. They took a comfortable three goal lead into the break. 

Capital seized on the same breeze early in the second to claw one back through Emma Rolston, but they never looked like creating enough chances to close the deficit further. One goal each to Southern and Capital in the final ten minutes of the contest (to Erin Roxburgh and Jayden Watts respectively) means Southern United push up into third, while Capital remain in fifth, sitting eight points outside a finals place with just seven games remaining. 

Central 1 Auckland 2

Report from newly converted Central fan Warren Olson

Thought by many to be a one-sided affair (ED Yes I was one of those!), the favoured Auckland side were rocked early when Central's Mikaela Boxall used the breeze to lift a long range shot into the top corner. The visitors started to string lots of passes together and both wings were making good runs, but their crosses were being easily dealt with by a solid Central defence. Central held their 1-0 lead at half time but allowing for Auckland's possession and the wind behind them in the second half it seemed it wouldn't be long before Auckland  got on the scoresheet. Strangely however it was Central who took control after the break only conceding from a mistake at the back after a rare Auckland up field run. Central came straight back and following a slick move should have got a second, Boxall managing to somehow skew the ball wide after the keeper was beaten. It was looking like a draw when a late Auckland corner was hopefully headed goal-wards and trickled over the line. Auckland should be counting themselves lucky that they managed to pick up all three points in this game.  

DOUBLE HEADER PREVIEW

At the end of last season I did a review where I spoke to most of the coaches of the NWL teams (and in one case the CEO) and the one thing that came through as needing changing for this season was the double header round. Coaches hate it as there is very little recovery time available for their players with two games in 48 hours and traveling between cities as well. If they were telling me this, I have no doubt that they fed this back to NZF, who looks like went oh OK, here is the double header round for 2019!

However it's not all the teams that suffer from the lack of recovery time, the two closest teams in the league Northern Lights & Auckland play each other on a Thursday evening and then again on the Tuesday, giving them five days between their games. Great for them but hardly a level playing field when you have the other teams having to travel between Cambridge and Wellington and Christchurch and Dunedin for games within two days of each other. For the sake of the competitions integrity they really need to look at this and work it out. It does nothing for the players or the fans. Personally I'd rather see Capital play a double header of games on the Saturday and Monday once every two years than the current set up.

AUCKLAND (4th) v NORTHERN LIGHTS (1st)

CRUM PARK, AUCKLAND

QBE STADIUM, ALBANY

Auckland have only managed two wins in their last 13 against their city rivals and I don't see them making any change to the record in these games. They have been lucky this season, picking up a point against Capital when they shouldn't have got one and getting all three points last weekend against Central. With the exception of Steph Skilton they haven't looked anywhere as good as they should be. 

MY PICK : Two comfortable 2 or 3 goal wins for Northern

SOUTHERN UNITED (3rd) v CANTERBURY UNITED PRIDE (2nd)

LOGAN PARK, DUNEDIN

ENGLISH PARK, CHRISTCHURCH

The Great Southern Derby, Battle of the South Island, call it what you want, this should be match of the round (cue NZ football calling WaiBOP v Capital as match of the round) Last season these games ended up in two 3-1 wins for Canterbury United. This season I think it will end up a win a piece. Southern United have really stepped up over the last couple of seasons and are proving that it isn't a flash in the pan. I do think they are the team to watch

MY PICK : Southern win in Dunedin, Canterbury in Christchurch, both games by 1 or possibly 2 goals

WAIBOP (6th) v CAPITAL (5th)

SAT, Oct 26th, 2019

John Kerkoff Park, Cambridge

MON, Oct 28th, 2019

Petone Memorial, Petone

What's happening at Capital? On paper they have a tremendous team. Two players (Jemma Catherwood and Nina Kondo) have just been called up to the NZ U17 team. They have Football Fern Emma Rolston up front and a large number of the Wellington United team that has won the league three out of the last four seasons. However they are just not gelling. WaiBOP are another team that probably could do better but stories of only having two players on the bench at some games is disturbing and not something that should be happening at National League level.

MY PICK : first game will be a high scoring draw, second game will be a win to Capital as WaiBOP won't have the depth for two games in three days 

Wherever you are get along and support a team