Northern start with strong win
Northern Football’s national title defence is off to a solid start.
After a 3-0 win over Central in the opening round of the National Women’s League, Northern are now preparing for Friday night’s fixture, under lights in Albany where they take on Auckland in the ‘‘Battle Of The Bridge’’.
Coach Chris Acott was pleased with Northern’s first game of the season.
‘‘Considering we had seven players making their Northern debut for us on Sunday the team gelled as well as can be expected and in the second half we were able to control large parts of the game,’’ Acott says.
Central started the match strongly applying pressure to an experienced Northern backline featuring Women’s Knockout Cup champ, Tessa Berger, and Northland FC’s influential Nicole Stratford, who needed to draw on some clever build up play to progress the ball out of their own half.
‘‘Our back four and keeper all played very well which gave us a good springboard to be a threat higher up the field,’’ Acott says.
After a highly contested first 20 minutes, Northern slowly started to gain control of the game and were able to dictate play forcing Central to defend deep in their own half. Midway through the half Northern were able to capitalize on their territorial advantage with a well taken free kick just outside the box from Kate Loye to take the lead.
Central continued to be a threat with regular fast breaks leading to a number of half chances, however Northern held their one goal advantage heading into the break.
Three of Northern’s more experienced players - Kate Loye, Liz Milne and Katie Rood - got on the scoresheet in the win over Central and Acott wants to continue to draw on their talents.
‘‘We have a large number of players in our group who are strong leaders who have experienced World Cups and previous National Women’s League winning campaigns. It is important that this strength and depth within our squad is utilized in training and in intensive matches as it plays a crucial role in the outcome of the game.’’