The Premmy Files – Women’s Premiership, Week 6
Capital have the bye next week, the final week of the regular season, so to say that it was all or nothing as they hosted Canterbury Pride on Saturday wouldn’t be a lie. If they won they’d be a good bet to make the final. If they didn’t win then that’s season done right there and then. They certainly weren’t expected to be up there near the top at this stage but a combination of timely goals and stingy defence has worked wonders. However the Pride were coming off their own bye and we all know they have a tendency to peak at exactly the ideal time what with the whole dynasty and everything.
Several changes for Capital, who’d rotated a few things in a battling win over Central last time out. To the surprise of nobody, Hope Gilchrist and Katie Barrott came back into the starting team (Barrott making her 50th appearance, hip hip hooray), but there were some surprises in Jemma Robertson and Nina Kondo getting their first starts of the season in the most important game. Olivia Ingham wasn’t in the squad, so Jemma Robertson played in defence (despite actually being a prolific goal scorer... but her sister Mickey was hogging that role). Kondo played in defensive midfield alongside the captain Barrott. Both of them have only had sporadic subs appearances so far (3 for Kondo, 1 for J-Rob).
Which means that Maia Vink has used 20 different starters in these six games. Compare that to the Cantabs who have only used 13. Ten separate players have started every game with their only change to the team that put six past Central a fortnight ago being Alyssa Whinham getting a third start in that attacking midfield role. Annalie Longo started in week one but got injured (back on the bench here though) and Lily Bray got a crack there last game. Extremely stable otherwise... no other team is even close to that level of consistent selection.
A couple early set pieces for Capital came to nothing, then the Pride began to show what they’d been working on in their week off. Lara Wall was getting really high up on the left (playing further forward than Tahlia Herman-Watt who was at left back here, curiously) and she and Gabi Rennie each asked a few half-questions of that Capital backline before they cracked them in the 15th minute. Rennie with some nice work charging into the box then squaring it for Britney-Lee Nicholson who placed it where Georgia Candy had no hope of saving it.
So... not ideal for the home side. Capital did come back from a goal behind to draw with Northern in week one but a draw wasn’t what they needed here. Kaley Ward skipped in behind after a giveaway in the Canterbury midfield but Rebecca Lake made a superb sliding block to deny her. Charlotte Wilford-Carroll later had a crack from distance but Una Foyle got her hands on it. Capital had that trademarked Wellington wind in their favour here so that’s the way to do it, gotta unleash those shots. Lots of attempts to get Ward in behind as well.
But the Pride didn’t have to worry about that breeze as they simply whipped the ball around on the deck and 26 minutes into the match they doubled that lead. Alyssa Whinham with a sharp burst of pace to go around Barrott who chopped her down and there was no doubt at all about the penalty decision. For the fourth game in a row Rebecca Lake placed the ball on the spot and then sent it flying into the net, shooting down the middle as Candy dove to her right. 2-0 to the Cantabs and a massive game was already looking like it might be slipping away.
They were lucky not to go three down on 32 mins as Whinham again got involved, slipping a ball through for Nicholson but BLN pushed her finish well wide as Candy rushed out. Whinham’s been in and out of this team in 2020 and she’s only about 16 years old but damn here fingerprints (footprints?) were all over this first half. Her close control is excellent and the directness that she brought to the CP attack in behind Nicholson and Rennie was proving very tough to handle. Also tough to handle was Ellen Fibbes going down hurt late in the first half for Capital and having to be replaced by Sarah Alder. The only ever-present player in that back three. Not really what you wanna see when you’re already two goals down in a must-win contest.
In the 44th minute Whinham won a corner by running at the defence and squaring a ball that was hacked behind before a Pride attacker could get on it. In came the corner kick and Candy punched it away low but it fell to Whinham on the edge of the box and she lifted it up over the defence and the wind came closest to keeping it out but nope, not gonna deny Alyssa Whinham on a day like this. Her first goal of the season and it was 3-0 heading into the sheds for oranges.
Mikaela Hunt went off at HT, not sure if that was injury related or what. Emma Clarke replaced her. Meanwhile it took about a minute before Alyssa Whinham picked up the ball out on the right and there was just acres of space there that never got closed down as Whinham fed Gabi Rennie and her shot took a cheeky deflection to beat Georgia Candy and make it 4-0. If there was any chance of Capital coming back before then it was gone now.
Unsurprisingly that meant even more subs. Capital looking to get a few players game time in what was now clearly gonna be their last game of the year while Canterbury, with all those players who’ve started every match, could protect a few of them with an enormous couple weeks to follow (potentially). Not all of the subs were sympathetic though, Sarah Alder had to be subbed off quarter of an hour after she’d been subbed on. A leg injury of some sort there – a second Capital defender having to leave hurt. Would call it the consequences of a long season but not when there are only six games. Just bad luck, s’pose.
By the way, Canterbury reverted to a back four here after flirting with a three (probably in response to some dodgy spacing across their backline early in the campaign, particularly against counter attacks). Hunt and Lake in the middle with Katie Taylor on the right and Herman-Watt on the left. Having THW back there gave them a little more shape as it allowed Wall, so important to their attacks, the freedom to stay forward without being out of position. Simply put, this Pride defence has not played better than this all season. They were flawless, keeping up with Ward and Mickey Robertson and confidently breaking things down. Even after the changes at the break there was no visible let-off. The closest they came to being beaten was a long-distance belter from Kaley Ward which dropped onto the crossbar.
Nice to see Annalie Longo get a run late on, the ninth of ten combined substitutions to be made and she immediately brought a touch of class to what had become a scrappy game. Longo hadn’t played since going off hurt half an hour into the first game and she’s soon off for another stint with the Melbourne Victory in the W-League but gotta get those national league reps first. The tenth of those subs was a goalkeeping swap. Molly Simons on for Georgia Candy. Four minutes from the end of the season after Candy had played every second up until then.
It doesn’t feel right that we have to say farewell to Capital now. A 4-0 loss ends their season with three wins, a draw, and a couple defeats and it would’ve been fun to see what they might have done in a second round of fixtures. Kaley Ward was absolutely tireless in this game as with all games, ending with six goals from six games and the current lead in the golden boot race – nail-biting week for her coming up with Rina Hirano and Gabi Rennie both only one goal behind her. Capital supplied a quality defensive unit, particularly Hope Gilchrist and Ellen Fibbes. Charlotte Wilford-Carroll has been so good in defence. Anna Green coming back from injury. Mickey Robertson is always exciting. Katie Barrott battling away in the middle. Really enjoyable team to watch.
But they were well beaten here but a very strong team with very high ambitions. That week off seems to have sharpened the Pride up, things had been slightly disjointed before this but they found some form against Central and were even better here for the four-goal win. Alyssa Whinham for sure the player of the day with a goal and two assists but they were dominant across the park, to be honest. The spectre of their 4-1 loss to Auckland remains but the Cantabs have won each of their other four games scoring at least four goals in all of them... meaning this game sets up what might as well be a semi-final clash next week as Canterbury host Northern Lights with a draw or a win putting Canterbury into the final while a loss would allow Northern to leap frog them at the last moment. Big things.
Speaking of Northern, they had Central on the cards this week at home. A game they obviously expected to win but Central had been pretty decent the week before so can’t be counting chickens. And Northern sprung a surprise in their starting line-up: Anna Leat wearing the gloves all of a sudden. Hadn’t been announced in their initial squad but there you go. The Lights also gave Emma Kete her first start since week one while Malia Steinmetz and Lily Jervis both returned to the starting team. Central were almost exactly as they were against Capital a week ago, not an alteration to be seen with the exception of Amy Simmers playing in goal at the expense of the injured Brooke Bennett. She’d replaced Bennett in the first half against Capital.
As you’d have guessed, the Central front three were happy to drop behind the ball so while Northern were moving it nicely across their defence, the passes became scarcer in the Central half with so many players crowding them out. Playing with the headwind at North Harbour Stadium didn’t help either, multiple times the ball was carried out for a goal kick on that breeze... even a corner kick fell prey to the element. Central also did well to win a few pressure-easing free kicks and thus it was a mostly uneventful first quarter of an hour or so.
Simmers did have to get her hands on a cross from out right that looked tricky, then she dropped a ball under pressure from Ava Pritchard which didn’t amount to anything but was the first sign of Central looking shaky. They were getting strong performances out of Florence MacIntyre and their centre-backs but they also were up against a team that knew how to clean things up on the break and Central’s young forwards just couldn’t get into the game no matter how hard they worked. So basically the waves kept on crashing on the shore, wearing them down. A counter attack after a Gorgi van Lienen free kick had been blocked nearly led to something but Simmers smothered Arabella Maynard’s square pass (probs shoulda shot). Then on 28 minutes a high cross from Nicole Stratford picked out Maynard and her header was parried up by Simmers who then had to dive on the ball behind her to keep it from dropping over the line.
Unfortunately then MacIntyre, who had been playing so well as a shield in that midfield, then got her leg stuck in a challenge and had to be replaced by Eve Barry after half an hour. About two minutes later Northern got the breakthrough. Same combo that nearly did it just before, Stratford sitting a cross up for Maynard who this time nodded it down to where no keeper was gonna save it. Central hadn’t dealt too well with a few of them crosses already, not with that wind swirling around, so you did get the feeling that was how they’d probably crack them.
Then it happened again only more directly in the 43rd minute. Nicole Stratford had to stretch to keep the ball in play after a sharp one-two between Steinmetz and Kete had sent her into space down the line. She recovered and then looked up to cross. That cross didn’t find any of her teammates... instead it found the far top corner. Looping over the arms of Amy Simmers and then the wind did the rest. Probably a bit of an accident but hey they all count the same. This is where she scored from...
There was something of a significant moment five minutes into the second half when Central decided to replace their goalkeeper. Simmers must have been carrying an injury or something, maybe wanted to try give it a few mins after the break to see if she could shake it off and couldn’t, because the thing was they were already down to their backup goalie and didn’t have a replacement on the bench. Which meant that instead on came Mickaela Boxall wearing a goalie jersey over her usual kit. Not one you see every day: the emergency goalkeeper in action.
Central’s best chance yet came as Eve Barry fired one over the crossbar. Quite a few times they were able to get Aniela Jensen and Charlotte Lancaster and Georgie Furness and the likes trading passes up front but generally they broke down without the end product. They might have scored once but they weren’t gonna score twice so Northern felt comfortable in getting the subs out there, giving games to the likes of Rose Luxton, Danni Canham & Suya Haering – first appearance of 2020 for Haering, second appearance for the other two.
Boxall actually made a really good save one on one with Maynard coming in from the left, how about that? She was getting some excellent protection too from Jana Niedermayr and Samantha Woolley - honestly not a lot of chances in this one. Tawharu got in from a Chloe Knott pass but tried to cross instead of shoot and Boxall read it nicely. But a few of the Central players did begin to show signs of tiring as the game got deeper so maybe not a shocker that the Lights blew out the scoreline in stoppage time. First it was Sammi Tawharu, tapping in after a shot by Green had come back off the post (cheeky save by Boxall by the looks) and her initial rebound was saved by Boxall then her second effort was blocked by Watts but she got it over the line at the third attempt. Then Maynard got her second with a delicious chip... although it looked for sure like she’d been coming back from an offside position. There was a deflection off a defender that caused the ball to reach her so maybe that was why it stood. Or maybe the defender at the back post played her on after all.
Whatever it was, a bit of inexperience from Central to let the score get away with them at the end because they didn’t deserve to lose 4-0. They’d been really good in defence all game, an area where they’ve made steady improvements in each of the last three weeks (since Jana Niedermayr came back from suspension, hmm). It’s up front that this team hasn’t been able to drop an anchor with only three goals in five games and none in the last three. But this was billed as a development year from the start with a number of players still in their mid-teens.
More of a routine win than an impressive one from Northern. Nicole Stratford was very good at fullback and Jervis and Barry had things covered at the back. They got a few goals and kept a clean sheet but you felt they always had one eye on next week. That’s when they’ll travel to Canterbury needing to win to advance to the final. That loss to WaiBOP last week’s taken away all their margin for error.
Ol’ WaiBOP, aye? Only managed to draw with Central but they Northern. Unlucky to lose to lose to Capital and now here they were at Dunedin’s Logan Park turf to face Southern. One change to the Southern team that lost to Auckland last week with Amy Hislop replacing Emily Morison up front. That meant another start for Blair Currie in goal (who has been going back and forth with Tessa Nicol for the gloves). Hannah Mackay-Wright and Kelsey Kennard have been forging a nice partnership at the back too. On the other side we had WaiBOP with a pair of changes. Serena Murrihy and Kate Loye both back amongst it.
Southern had lost each and every one of their games to date but they’ve never wavered in their style of play. They’d sit deep and sturdy and then play direct on the counter attack. Beginning stages of this one it was WaiBOP who therefore made the more positive start, swinging a few crosses into the area, but they were unable to make the most of any of them. Not quite the quality on the delivery. Instead they got a lesson in being clinical by Southern when a free kick was awarded in the 14th minute after Murrihy stepped in on Hislop. Macey Fraser lined up the dead ball and smashed it low towards the corner where Rylee Godbold saved it but she couldn’t hold on and Amy Hislop zipped in to bury the rebound.
Blair Currie took a blow as Manaia Elliott dashed in for a loose ball after Grace Wisnewski had seemingly been fouled on the edge of the area. Neither foul was given though, the ball rolling carefully out for a goal kick instead. Some frantic moments there. And WaiBOP kept up that pressure, getting back on even terms in the 24th minute as Michaela Foster swung a cross into such a dangerous area that Chelsea Elliott seemed destined to score from... until Renee Bacon got there in front of her. One of those own goals that you can’t really do anything about.
This was a very competitive game. Macey Fraser had a good effort that had Godbold scrambling a tad, then Hislop threw in a few stepovers and cut in to shoot and Goldbold spilled another one with Kate Guildford swooping in to score but she did so from an offside position and the goal didn’t stand. Meanwhile Kelli Brown is never shy a pop from distance herself and Foster had a sighter late in the half that she mighta done better with. Good open football with both teams trying to be positive. The main difference being that Southern looked that bit more solid at the back... so of course they then subbed off CB Kennard and brought on Tahlia Roome. Kennard was on a yellow to be fair.
WaiBOP also made two HT swaps: Maddi Ollington and Serena Carpenter on for Shannon Trebes and Manaia Elliott. Changing the personnel going forward in order to chase the goals that would bring them victory. WaiBOP produced a few searching runs across the defence from Brown in particular. Southern had a rush of corners. You have to dig the intentions from both coaches going for the win. Then in the 54th minute Rose Morton flicked a bouncing ball over halfway to Macey Fraser in space and she split the defence to find Amy Hislop. Out came Godbold but Hislop took it around her and then showed great composure to come back in on the better angle and finish through the scrambling defenders. 2-1 to Southern... more goals in this game than they’d scored all season. A double for Hislop and a beauty of an assist from Macey Fraser, who was Southern’s major offseason addition (from Canterbury) but the way their games have gone so far haven’t really allowed for Fraser to show off her best attributes. Until now. She was brilliant in this game.
This time Southern were a lot sharper after conceding. They kept the pressure coming, pushing the WaiBOP defence and midfield back and then trusting their defence to be able to contain the likes of Brown, Wiskewski, and Carpenter in isolated areas. It was well-placed trust and Rose Morton was essential in all that as a defensive midfielder. WaiBOP did get into better areas in the final twenty... but Southern were superb at having players shooting out of the line to close down the ball-carrier and limit their options. This is a team that’s built for defending a lead and before today they hadn’t even had one. Sorta like having to wait six weeks before you can play with your Christmas presents. To be honest WaiBOP didn’t really have too many clear chances to score in the second half and that means their wild season continues with a 2-1 defeat to Southern, who themselves are off the foot of the table with their first points.
That sets up a tasty match next week as Southern travel to Palmerston North to face Central in the final round seeking a second win in a row. WaiBOP host Auckland in a game that’s mostly just for pride from their side of things however Auckland could still drop out of the top two if they don’t get at least a point. And of course there’s the monster clash between Canterbury and Northern. Grand final town ain’t big enough for the both of them so it’s all on in that one. All three games taking place on Sunday.
By the way there was a little bit of a controversy off the field. Auckland got in some trouble for having played an ineligible player in the first three rounds: turns out Emma Fletcher, who had been excellent for them in the midfield before disappearing in the two games since, had been the victim of a bit of mix and match. A different, younger Emma Fletcher was activated on the squad list instead. NZ Football chose not to dock Auckland any points however as it was deemed an honest mistake.
It’s slightly inconsistent with how a Men’s Premiership situation around eligibility was ruled a year ago but crucially none of Auckland’s opponents actually filed a complaint. Auckland themselves identified the problem and made NZF aware of it. Thus Auckland don’t lose the nine points they earned in those matches... though they do lose Emma Fletcher who can’t be registered after the fact since the window’s now closed. Fletcher’s a Canadian-born midfielder who played for the NZ U17s before switching allegiances back to her birth nation (and playing once for the senior side). One of the better players in the comp so still a huge blow to Auckland’s title hopes. Wouldn’t be a Premiership season without at least one of these sloppy regos though, would it?
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