Proctor bags brace in Pride victory
Experienced midfielder Emma Proctor was on target twice as the Mainland Pride maintained their unbeaten start to their national women’s football league title defence.
The Pride beat Central 4-1 at ASB Football Park in Christchurch on Saturday after grabbing three first half goals.
Proctor struck in the 19th minute after she picked a defender’s pocket, robbing her in Central’s defensive area before firing a shot, which goalkeeper Sophie Hoare got a hand to but could not prevent it entering the net.
Football Ferns international Annalie Longo set up Mainland’s second in the 36th minute with a shot which Hoare blocked but Megan Shea reacted quickly to slot home the rebound. Rebecca Gillett made it 3-0 just two minutes later to give the Pride an unassailable halftime lead.
Central hit back with their only goal in the 78th minute when Mikayla Boxall swooped after some indecisive defending in the Mainland area. But Proctor collected her second goal six minutes from fulltime.
Mainland remained joint top of the table with Northern Football, who beat the New Zealand Development team 6-3.
Pride coach Mike De Bono was pleased with the first half performance ‘‘despite challenges caused by the wind. Luckily we were clinical with our chances. But our second half wasn’t great and we were quite messy at times.’’
Meanwhile, the Canterbury United premier men’s team had an encouraging 2-2 draw with New Zealand and Oceania champions Auckland City in Auckland on Saturday.
All White Ryan de Vries opened the scoring for Auckland in the 38th minute of the pre-season friendly at Kiwitea St Stadium.
But Canterbury’s new striker Angus Kilkolly equalised in the 69th with a long range shot after United coach Willy Gerdsen adopted a pressing style to put Auckland under more pressure.
The Dragons’ English import Gary Ogilvie fired Canterbury ahead 2-1 five minutes later. Auckland had to rely on a Michael Den Heijer goal four minutes from fulltime to salvage a draw.