Southern United suffer another setback against Northern Lights

Despite a much-improved second half, Southern suffer another loss

The Northern Lights have kept in touch with front-runners Canterbury United Pride while Southern United’s title hopes are all but over after Heritage Week wrapped up in the National Women’s League this afternoon.

After fellow final contenders Canterbury and Capital both secured victories yesterday, the pressure was on the Lights to follow suit today and they delivered with a 2-1 win in Dunedin to move within four points of top spot.

While the win keeps Northern well on track, it was a fifth defeat of the season for Southern and leaves them significantly cut off from the top four. The sides occupying those spots – Canterbury, Northern, Auckland and Capital – now appear to be in a four-horse race for the final but Northern could even go on to claim the minor premiership after picking up another three points on the road.

It was a good time for Southern to be hosting Northern as the Lights were without coach Gemma Lewis and seven players, who all jetted off to Uruguay for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup yesterday. But the visitors displayed the depth of talent available in their region while dealing well with the strong wind and driving rain at Sunnyvale Park.

Emma Turnbull put Northern in front just before the half hour, going one-on-one with goalkeeper Jordan Woodward before finishing at the second attempt. It was 2-0 soon after the break when a corner was headed back across goal and Samantha Tawharu side-footed it home, leaving Southern’s prospects of making the final hanging by a thread.

The hosts gave themselves hope of salvaging something on the hour when Mikayla Gray burst into the box and fed Britney-Lee Nicholson, who finished well off the post. But, despite a much-improved showing in the second half, Ignacio Sande’s side couldn’t draw level as Northern claimed a well-deserved win.

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