Last Saturday, Auckland United nearly got stuck against a magnificent defensive display from West Coast Rangers until a controversial late penalty maintained their 100% record... and it wasn’t going to get any easier having to play four days later, on a Wednesday night, away against an Eastern Suburbs
Three games played, three defeats, zero goals scored, nine conceded. The numbers don’t look pretty but to be fair they were mostly spoiled by the needless game against the USA
For all his brilliant start to life as a Motherwell player, Elijah Just hadn’t actually scored for Motherwell yet. He’s third in the Scottish Premiership with three assists and he’d had several close calls for goals of his own
Birkenhead were grand finalists last year. Wellington Olympic just won the Chatham Cup. Both have intentions of getting back to North Harbour Stadium (or wherever the final happens to be) in a few weeks but they also both lost last in round four. Gotta bounce back.
Now, this was one of those games that you circle on the fixture list. The premier dynastic club in the country against the team that pipped them to the NRFL Premiership title.
The one thing that’s been missing since Ali Riley returned from that long-term injury was... well, the most important bit: the actual return. She’d made it as far as the bench after getting back into full training but hadn’t actually been subbed on in a game
It’s taken this long for Eastern Suburbs to finally have a home game... their men didn’t qualify so Madills Farm has been solely for the dog walkers over the past month. But the club flags were up on Sunday as Canterbury United came to town
Western Suburbs won 8-0 against Coastal Spirit two weeks ago in the biggest Men’s National League victory for a decade... and yet managed to bookend that record win with a pair of defeats….
It shouldn’t really need to be said but this was a successful window for the All Whites. A narrow loss to Poland in which our two best players weren’t involved aside from ten minutes at the end for Chris Wood?
As far as Grace Wisnewski goes, this goal was just another bright spot in a season full of them. She’s quickly become a first eleven player, putting in reliable shifts in a few different midfield roles…
Unstoppable force. Immovable object. Through the first two weeks, no team’s games have involved more goals than Western Springs (15 goals: 8 for, 7 against)... and no team’s games have involved fewer goals than Petone (3 goals: 1 for, 2 against)
Fresh off the Derby win last week, Auckland FC were back to familiar territory as they ran into a fellow Northern Leaguer for the first time in this competition. In other words, a team that’s faced them before and understands how they play
The Football Ferns need more games, we’ve all been saying it. They took a couple of windows off after the Olympics which has left them playing catch-up under a new coach.
Things have happened very quickly during the Ange Postecoglou reign at Nottingham Forest. Initially there was all this chatter about how Chris Wood simply didn’t fit the vibrant, energetic style of play that Big Ange was going to bring to the table…
It’s a weird one when you can say that both teams scored four goals last week yet the outcomes were completely different. Wellington United scored four but conceded five as they fell short in defeat away to Western Springs…
Okay, settle in now, grab yourself a cuppa, because we’re reached the round’s headline act: the derby has arrived in the National League. Three times these clubs met in the A-League last season and three times Auckland FC came away victorious…
This is the part of the year where the international games come thick and fast. We had two matches against Australia in September. Now we’ve got Poland and Norway in October. In November we’ll have Colombia and Ecuador on the cards
Patience is a virtue but Milly Clegg’s wait for a goal in the NSL must have been grinding at her thoughts. It hasn’t been easy for her. She’s been in and out of the Halifax Tides starting team lately, often picked out wide…
The last time these two teams met was in the Chatham Cup quarter-final in late July, when Christchurch United, playing at home, blew a 2-0 lead with ten minutes to go and ultimately lost 4-2 after extra time.
On a relatively nice and only mildly windy Saturday afternoon at Petone Memorial Park began a brand new National League season... and immediately we saw an upset.