The Premmy Files – Women’s Premiership Week 5
Lower North Island Derby for starters? Yeah, love it. Central hosting Capital at Massey University in Palmerston North. Central have mostly stuck to the pattern this season, and again there was a familiar looking nature to their line-up. Five of their players have started every single game, and that would’ve been seven but Mikaela Boxall was absent this week and Eve Barry dropped to the bench. But Kaitlyn Watts was back from suspension. Here they lined up in a more aggressive interpretation of a 4-3-3 making a clear point of getting their wingers involved against the Capital back three.
Speaking of that Capital back three... it looked rather different this week as Maia Vink made several changes to the team for this match. Trying to mix it up against a winless opposition. Both Hope Gilchrist and Olivia Ingham were rested (Ingham on the bench, Gilchrist staying at home). Caelin Patterson and Molly Woodhead came in for those two – Patterson’s first start having come off the bench late last week. Nea Blackham (3 subs apps, first start) and Helena Errington (4 subs apps, first start) also came into the eleven. And check it out Anna Green was named to start after making her injury comeback off the bench last week. No Katie Barrott or Libby Boobyer who have been regulars. Definitely a rotated team for Capital up in Palmy.
Also, don’t ya just love how often Premiership football and animals combine?
They’ve lost heavily in three outta four games but Central are a very young team and therefore the lessons do come quick... but Central remain an outside chance to crack the final so quick had better be quick enough. Yet in scandalous disregard for the form guide Central started really sharp, trying to attack at pace through the likes of Georgie Furnell and Aniela Jensen and winning a few corner kicks. Wouldn’t have taken Capital long to realise they were in for a tough contest. However there were still a couple of times when Kaley Ward was able to get the ball in good areas and almost ten minutes into the match the golden boot leader tried to curl in a shot that was blocked. The ball rebounded to her and she chipped it over the top to Mickey Robertson who was just onside. Robbo miss-hit her shot... but it skidded across goal to where Ellington was lurking to touch it home from about fifty centimetres out. A positive start from Central yet they were already trailing 1-0 on ten mins.
They might’ve drawn level straight after but Natalie Olsen couldn’t get her left foot around a shot after sneaking in behind the defence, striking wide when one on one with the goalie. Then a collision between Ward and Central GK Brooke Bennett midway through the half led to an extended break as Bennett was treated by the physio and ended up having to be replaced by Amy Simmers.
It was notable how high up the park Capital were getting their wide players. Anna Green was basically playing as a winger opposite Robertson, call it a 3-2-4-1 formation if you want, which makes sense if you back yourselves to hold the ball high up and get Greenie to whip in some killer crosses but the flipside is that there was always space for Georgia Furnell when she drifted wide and with her speed that was something to worry about. In all honesty, Central should have scored half an hour in when that exact situation happened and Furnell squared to Olson but she couldn’t beat Georgia Candy who got enough of a touch on the ball to divert it about six inches past the post for a corner. Furnell had a couple shots of her own, gassing into space from the wing soon after, but Candy saved them both comfortably.
Towards the end of the half Central swapped their wingers with Furnell going left and Charlotte Lancaster moving out on the right having had a quiet game to that point, most of the play coming down Furnell’s side so this was a matter of switching the focus of the attack. However the best chances in those latter 1H moments all fell to Central. Kaley Ward beat Simmers out to a loose ball but Jana Niedermayr was able to block her shot before she had a chance to scope out the empty net. Then a couple dangerous Robertson crosses led first to Anna Green bashing one juuuust wide and second Tui Dugan not quite being able to shoot through traffic on the spin. Goal aside, those few minutes were by far the most effective Capital had been all day at that stage.
Anna Green was subbed off at the break, keeping to what was presumably a pre-planned 45 minute stint in her first start since that ACL injury. Jenna Robertson came on in the back three for a season’s debut (with Ellington, pretty sure it was, shifting into Green’s LWB role). Olivia Ingham also came on at the back meaning two changes to a back three that was already altered from last week. Perhaps as a result, some of the build up play wasn’t ideal from Capital and they turned the ball over a few too many times in those areas... but Central’s finishing wasn’t there at all. Lancaster (back on the left now) had a hopeful long ranger that looped off target. Then she got played in but her shot was lacking in power and placement and she was pretty furious about it. She got much better contact on her next one... but it swerved on the wrong side of the post and into the side-netting.
There was a great tackle by Watts on Dugan and then a good save by Simmers to push Wilford-Carroll’s shot over the top which in turn was followed by a crucial punch away from the resulting corner kick with Capital players lurking at the far post. Mickey Robertson had a shot from distance that Simmers didn’t have any dramas with. She also gathered up a late free kick. Meanwhile Jensen came as close as any Central player had to scoring in the 80th minute when she skipped past a couple defenders then fired towards the bottom corner but Georgia Candy got a hand to it to keep it out. Would’ve been a fair reward for a relentlessly good performance in midfield from Jensen but not to be. Amazingly there was still only a single goal in this game as we ticked into the final ten minutes but with Central’s finishing having let them down so badly it didn’t really feel like the game was in the balance. Capital closed it out for a 1-0 win.
Sketchy stuff from Capital at times. They’ll be better with their top choice defence back and to come out of this one with a clean sheet, gotta shout out Ellen Fibbes for holding it together there as the only starter from last week to go the distance. Charlotte Wilford-Carroll is never not impressive in the midfield for Capital while there were also solid efforts from Robertson, Dugan, and even though she went scoreless for the first time this season Kaley Ward kept hustling ‘til the end which was cool to see. The win has Capital second on the ladder but they still have a bye to come so any chance of making the final will come down to beating Canterbury at home next week in their final round robin game.
You can make a decent case that Central were at least deserving of a point here. That case falls apart when considering the lack of end product on show but with possibly their top strength back four of Watts/Woolley/Niedermayr/van Lienen they were as good defensively as they have been all campaign (the two CBs were excellent here) and it’d be rude not to throw some praise the way of Aniela Jensen in the midfield who was almost bossing the show. Both winning the ball in defensive situations and also dragging this team forward in attacking transition. Jensen’s one of the many players in this league who had to put her USA uni plans on hold in 2020 and the calibre clearly shows. Amy Simmers did commendably as the backup keeper thrust into the action. Georgie Furnell was involved in most of their best work up top. There are teams much higher on the table who didn’t cause Capital’s defence this many headaches. But ultimately they couldn’t score the goals they needed to show for it. Stink one.
Things got weird for Auckland last week. Their undeniable top dog status was stolen in broad daylight by Northern and that left them in a potentially confusing position. An unexpected result like that’ll have you doubting yourselves. But it was still all in their own hands... having already played Canterbury and Northern the task is simple: win all the remaining games and make the final. That quest started/resumed at home at Madills Farm with Southern the visitors, themselves having lost all three but coming off their bye week.
A couple yellow cards meant Alosi Bloomfield was out so Daisy Cleverly dropped deeper in midfield for Auckland while Maisy Dewell got her first start. Crucially Arisa Takeda was also back in the line-up with Emma Leaming dropping out and Laney Stachan swapping sides from last week. For Southern they made three changes from their 3-0 loss to Northern a couple weeks ago with Blair Currie back in goal and Macey Fraser returning from her concussion absence. Kate Guildford had (indirectly) replaced Fraser last time and she retained her spot here, Lena de Ronde dropping to the bench, while Emily Morison was also back in amongst the starters having played off the bench against Northern.
One thing that was immediately noticeable was that Ava Collins and Britney Cunningham-Lee had swapped spots in Auckland’s front three, BCL lining up through the middle and Collins out wide right. That was probably a matter of getting a little more physicality in that area against a team that was clearly gonna be stacking the numbers in defence against them. Here’s a glimpse as to how that manifested...
Note the flat, compacted back four. Then there were five in the middle also setting up a block but with an emphasis on closing down whoever had the ball for Auckland. One player presses up on the woman in possession, the rest hold their shape. It was also interesting to see how quickly they adapted where if, say, Renee Bacon pushed forward then Emily Morison would slide back to cover. Rotating around a central idea. And it’s safe to say that Auckland had a lot of trouble with that whole thing, struggling to find space in behind the block and struggling to find space in front of it. And if they played too close to the lines then there was absolutely no space at all with how Southern were marking up. Auckland have been possibly the most technically proficient of all the teams so far but that proficiency wasn’t helping them shift the two yellow walls between them and the goal.
In fact if anything the best chances were falling the other way. The worry about setting up like Southern did is that you’re going to struggle to transition out of that defensive shape when you win the ball without compromising it. All good getting numbers forward but lose the ball quickly and you’re left vulnerable. But without taking that risk you probably won’t create anything short of a bit of individual brilliance. It’s a tricky balancing act.
Renee Bacon was providing plenty of width and energy out on the right for Southern and she went close once with a shot at the near post, while 34 minutes into this one we had our best chance yet as Chelsea Whittaker got into the box and her shot looked like it was destined for the top corner but Lily Alfeld pushed it away to safety. Not quite enough power on it... but those two chances alone were more than the notoriously fast-staring Auckland had produced to date.
That was until Rina Hirano took matters into her own hands. When you’re up against a low block, one of the ways the coaching manuals suggest you break that down is quick switches of play to exploit the width. The point of the block is to stop teams from passing through the line so they have to be pretty compact. That means space on the opposite edge. But another way is to shoot from distance and back yourself to take advantage of any room in front of the back four (or at least try and catch a cheeky deflection or even just scare them out of the way). That’s what Rina Hirano did in the 36th minute for what the experts refer to as a ‘golazo magnifico’.
Yup, that’ll do it. She should have scored again about a minute later too but didn’t get the contact on a cross from Takeda... then she really did score again as BCL hustled onto a bouncing ball in the area following a defensive header and slid a freebie across the counter of the bar to where Hirano was hovering and those one-yard tap-ins are a striker’s dream, I tell ya.
Auckland then went on to make it 3-0 in the 52nd minute Cunningham-Lee jumped on an under-hit back-pass by Kate Guildford and Blair Currie wasn’t able to get her bearings in time to stop BCL from slotting it past her for a simple finish and a goal that basically ended this match as a contest. Southern had tried to be a bit more aggressive in the second half by getting their wingers higher, as well as replacing Morison with Amy Hislop at HT, but they weren’t about to suddenly become an attacking powerhouse and score three times in less than a half of footy. Hislop did have a crack cutting back that Alfeld saved... but mostly this game petered out with the subs being run out with regularity and the rain only getting heavier. Not to mention the poor cameraman’s hanky getting more and more soaked from wiping the lens clean every few minutes.
Ava Collins went close for AKL with a header that was caught by Currie and later on she swished a side-footed volley into the top corner but was offside. Sophie Bradley also had a shot late on which Currie was able to save... and that was about the sum of the goal scoring chances in the rest of it. Terrible conditions by the end of it and nobody woulda been upset to hear the final whistle.
The funny thing is Hannah Mackay-Wright and Kelsey Kennard actually defended really well for Southern at CB. One goal was a stunner from range and another was a mistake. Otherwise they were really solid. Also ‘twas a strong first half from Bacon while the Southern midfield all chipped in well. But Auckland had this one in control once they finally broke through. Rina Hirano’s class was a huge for them. Tayla O’Brien had a superb game in midfield and Liz Anton was good at the back. Daisy Cleverly is always excellent. Ava Collins never stopped running. They’ll be pretty satisfied with a 3-0 win to get them going again... a first clean sheet for Lily Alfeld this season. Stink for Southern to be 0-0-4 at this stage but they would never have expected to win this one, to be fair. They’ll have a better chance against WaiBOP next week and especially against Central in the final round.
Northern’s win over Auckland in week four put the cat amongst the pigeons in this competition. Feathers flying everywhere because every team had dropped points thanks to that result. Keeps things wide open going into the last three rounds and here the Lights travelled southwards to Cambridge and John Kerkhof Park where WaiBOP were waiting for them.
A couple notable restings for Northern. Lily Jervis and Malia Steinmetz both sat on the bench with Mackenzie Barry and Jess Innes swapping in for them, Innes with her first start of the year and Barry her second. Otherwise it was the same crew that’s started the previous two matches. The hosts on the other hand, they brought Chelsea Elliott back in defence to partner the everpresent Shannon Trebes. Kate McConnell also got the start and there was some shuffling in positions too with 2020 standout Michaela Foster moving up into the midfield.
The weather wasn’t particularly kind across the country this weekend with wind and rain affecting all three games. That wasn’t necessarily the worst thing for WaiBOP though who came out with a heap of energy and looking to pounce quickly on any Northern mistakes. They may not have won anything in the first four weeks but that’s deceptive because they’ve been competitive in all three games (can’t speak for their bye week though). The gruelling start to this game was kinda useful for them – Northern unable to get their link-ups going and WaiBOP probably with the better moments early on as a few crosses went whizzing into the box without connections.
It wasn’t until nearly half an hour in that we got a clear chance but mate when it arrived it was a proper jaw-dropper. Chloe Knott swung in a corner kick for Northern which bobbled around a bit and then was smacked towards goal by Liz Savage... and blocked on the line by Michaela Foster. Absolutely massive defensive intervention. Arabella Maynard got onto the clearance and struck it just over the top. Maynard then got in behind on the left soon after and looped one to the far post but Sammi Tawharu couldn’t get through the shot. It took long enough but Northern finally asking some questions.
And yet not so long afterwards Foster smashed one narrowly past the post at the other end. WaiBOP’s shape was causing trouble for Northern in getting their build-up going, players like Foster and Ollington winning a heap of interceptions, while Trebes and Chelsea Elliott were looking tidy at the back. This Northern top three (Maynard/Tawharu/Pritchard) has been fantastic the last two weeks but they were being largely shut down here... can’t underestimate the achievement there.
Then right as we edged into stoppage time that paid off to the maximum, WaiBOP still making it tough for Northern to string their passes together and Kelli Brown managed to pick off a clearance. Lisa Evans gave it back to her and Brown’s first touch was brilliant, sending Mackenzie Barry sliding. As she looked up she saw that Erin Hughes was still out of position in goal so she simply lobbed it over and inside the far post with her left foot. Astounding level of skill there from Brown, a player who we all know loves a quality goal.
That sent us into the break with WaiBOP in front and Ben Bate wasn’t having that, making THREE half-time subs. Lily Jervis, Emma Kete & Talisha Green on for Aneka Mittendorff, Sammi Tawharu & Nicole Stratford. Significant changes there but before they could even get going WaiBOP got straight on the attack, won a corner kick, and then Emma Cawte lashed in a loose ball from the edge of the area and it was 2-0 barely a minute into the second half.
Northern nearly pulled one back when Kete slipped a sneaky ball in for Pritchard but Ryley Godbold rushed out to save it. Meanwhile WaiBOP coulda put it out of reach when Kate McConnell lifted one over for Brown who took it down on her chest but didn’t really get a hold of her shot, visibly annoyed by that with another worldie on the cards otherwise. But 51st minute of the game Knott hit a trick free kick out wide to Talisha Green who crossed it in low and hard and Godbold couldn’t handle it. Should’ve stopped it, didn’t stop it. Northern were back within reach at 2-1 with forty minutes still remaining.
Manaia Elliott should’ve made it 3-1 when she got in on the overlap but tried to smash it rather than place it and Hughes was able to tip it over. Godbold then made up for the goal and then some with a couple consecutive saves to keep Savage at bay. Lily Jervis also headed a corner over the top. Clearly this game was gonna go down to the wire... even as Hughes had to reach into mid-air to save a Foster attempt that’d been bashed towards the top corner. That’s the thing, WaiBOP were serving up a defensive clinic and many teams would’ve been happy to sit back and try hold what they already had but the WaiBOPers never stopped seeking that third banger.
Liz Savage couldn’t buy a trick this day. Another shot from her, another stretching save by Godbold. And for all of Saskia Vosper’s searching long throws the WB defence kept on dealing with them. Incredibly Foster managed another goal-line block as Kete stabbed at one and it hit Foster (who just managed to get her arm out of the way) and then bounced off the post. Even into stoppage time Jervis had a header that clipped the post. It was incredible drama but in the end this is what goes into the record books...
It’s hard to even pick a standout WaiBOP player ahead of all the rest but the captain Michaela Foster absolutely led by example and it was fitting that the final act of the match was Foster winning a tackle. Already mentioned Chelsea Elliott and Shannon Trebes who won so many headers, so many tackles at the back, setting the tone for a physical and confident performance by the entire team. Godbold made some top notch saves. Brown and Cawte scored good goals. A super effort from top to bottom for WaiBOP’s first three-pointer of the season... a performance that they’d always been capable of but here they were delivering on that promise in eye-popping fashion.
Northern will definitely feel like they were unlucky. A couple shots cleared off the line, rattling the frame of the goal more than once, some very good saves keeping them out. On another day maybe they win 5-2. But those fine margins aren’t a coincidence... the Lights were often second to the ball in the same way that they forced Auckland to be last week. And having already dropped points with a draw against Capital this puts them in the situation where they’ll probably need to beat Canterbury to make the final now. That game is away in the final week of the season. Tough task.
Fun fact: there were zero yellow cards across all three games in week five. What do ya know?
Next week it’s Capital vs Canterbury in a must-win game for both teams in Wellington, that’s on Saturday at 11am. Then on Sunday at the same times we’ve got Southern United hosting WaiBOP, one team seeking their first win and the other boosted by just having got it. Before Northern Lights have a crack at Central at 1pm in Auckland pretty glad for the fixture list giving them the Central team that’s conceded 15 goals in two away games rather than the one that drew with WaiBOP and almost did the same to Capital in two home games. Auckland have the bye so they can spend the whole weekend watching the cricket Test.
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