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| Capital's Helen Errington scores her debut goal for the team Photo TJF Photos |
CENTRAL 0 CAPITAL 1
ISPS Handa Women's Premiership
Massey University, Palmerston North
Sunday 29 November 2020
Att : about 100
As I left Wellington to head to Palmerston North for the ISPS Hand Womens Premiership game between Central and Capital, the heavens opened up and it chucked it down with rain, so much so that there was flooding in Plimmerton and I was thinking it could be possible that the game could be called off.
Still, with it raining so hard and given Central's defensive record this season of conceding 17 goals in three games it should give me the chance to use a headline along the lines of its raining goals, but it wasn't to be. Instead the pitch at Massey University was in fact pretty good, considering the amount of rain that had fallen, almost perfect you could say.
These teams know each other well, with not just players playing against each other during the winter in the W-League several are also team mates with both Wellington United and Wairarapa United being represented in both teams.
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| Capitals Anna Green |
While some may think it was presumptuous to say Capital would win and win by quite a few goals, you just need to look at the fact Central haven't beaten Capital since 2012 and in fact have only managed to score two goals against them since 2016!
Central obviously wanted to break this record and went on the attack straight from the kick off, forcing a corner from the first attack. However it was Capital who got on top early when Anna Green, whose professionalism and experience seems to be just what Capital need now, broke down the left wing cut inside and sent a cross over it ended up with Kayley Ward who got it to the right wing, where Mickey Robertson managed to slip the offside trap and hit the ball back into the middle where it was met by young Helena Errington to slot in her first goal for Capital.
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| Amelia Simmers Saves |
It was a reasonably open game with chances at both ends, Central's Wellington United striker, Natalie Olson, will be kicking herself after uancharaterically missing two good chances. Central were struggling to deal with Green on the left wing, but Capital were unable to build on this and the score stayed 1-0 at half time.
Half time saw Olivia Ingham come on for Anna Green and Jemma Robertson on for Caelin Paterson. It was good to see Robertson back, and despite having scored 26 goals in the recent W-League season, coach Maia Vink deployed her at left back. Robertson is the sort of player that it doesn't matter where you played her you know you will get 100% from her and as a defender she is extremely hard to beat.
Capital had their chances but good keeping from Simmers and a defence that maybe benefitted from knowing the players they were up against better kept them from adding to their tally. While Central played better than their second bottom place in the table suggested their problem has been scoring goals, they have managed only three all season and apart from one shot across the front of goal didn't trouble Georgia Candy in the Capital goal much.
So another 1-0 win to Capital, with WaiBOP upsetting Northern Lights it sees Capital move into second place. They have one game left, at home against Canterbury United Pride and then they will need to wait and see what happens as they have the bye in the last week. It could be possible that they finish the season with just one loss but still don't get into the finals. The best outcome is for a win over Canterbury and then hope that Canterbury can do them a favour and beat Northern in the last weekend. That would likely see then into the final which will likely be against Auckland.
But that is all a big if and the most important thing will be beating Canterbury next week. It's going to be a challenge for Capital, who it is probably fair to say have been fortunate with their results this season but with Anna Green coming back from injury at the right time and an obvious great team spirit, it's in their hands.
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