City, Lights grab vital wins

The Northern Lights and Auckland City scored important wins in their respective national league matches yesterday.

In the National Women’s League, it looks to be a threehorse race for the two places in the final.

Northern claimed a crucial three points when beating Capital 4-2. Ava Pritchard scored a second-half double to keep her side in second place on 20 points, four behind Canterbury United.

Canterbury sit top on 24 points after their 8-0 demolition of Central yesterday. Cody Taylor scored a hat-trick in the win.

Auckland kept the pressure on Northern with their comefrom-behind 3-2 win over Southern United. Emily Morison scored a first-half brace to have the southerners leading 2-1 at halftime, but two goals from Grace Jale were followed by the winner from Nicole Mettam 15 minutes from time.

In the men’s ISPS Handa Premiership, Dylan Manickum scored the only goal for Auckland City in their 1-0 win over Eastern Suburbs, riding a challenge well before running clear of the Suburbs defence to finish one-on-one in the 54th minute.

Manickum had a shot cleared off the line in the 72nd minute, but it mattered little as his side closed out the win.

Earlier, Suburbs striker Andre de Jong had a 15th-minute penalty saved by City goalkeeper Enaut Zubikarai. Tim Payne also had a second-half header appear to cross the line as Zubikarai saved, but the linesman adjudged that it had not crossed the line.