Photo: Getty Images Northern delivered one of their most complete performances of the Southern League season against second-placed Ferrymead Bays on Saturday. Northern celebrated a 2-0 win in a game moved to the Logan Park turf due to the Caledonian being waterlogged. Ferrymead dominated the early stages but were not able to get past keeper Eli Urwin, who continued his outstanding form this season. The game was scoreless at the break and Northern opened the scoring six minutes after the restart when an in-swinging corner from the left was headed directly into his own goal by Ferrymead Bays defender Luke Pritchard. With Northern leading and having a strong defensive organisation, Ferrymead were limited to very few clear chances. Northern dictated the tempo, never let Ferrymead settle on the ball and were a constant threat going forward. They got the decisive second goal on 69 minutes when a sweeping move, starting from inside their own penalty box and featuring a switch of the ball from player to player, ended with a pass finding Alex Dale inside the Ferrymead penalty area. Dale’s first-time control of the ball allowed him to strike a crisp shot into the bottom corner. The 2-0 victory gave Northern their fifth win of the season and kept them in the top half of the table. Wānaka travelled to Nelson and, while they trailed only 1-0 after a competitive first half, they conceded at the restart when giving away possession. Nelson’s Lennon Whewell drove forward and his mis-hit shot deceived keeper Kwadwo Nketia. From that point, Nelson dominated, scoring another four goals to complete a 6-0 hammering. The goal of the game came in the 85th minute when Labu Pan, on the edge of the box, bent his shot into the top corner. Wānaka remain bottom of the table but are only one point behind Selwyn. The Dunedin City Royals were beaten 2-0 by Coastal Spirit in Christchurch yesterday. Christchurch United beat Selwyn 4-1, and league leaders Cashmere Technical were held to a 2-2 draw by Nomads. • Northern Hearts remain unbeaten and top of the ODT Southern Men’s Premiership following a 2-1 win over Green Island at Sunnyvale. Hearts had the lead at the break, thanks to the league’s joint top goal-scorer, Bailey Chambers, getting his seventh goal of the season. The lead was doubled when Kowin Hancock claimed his sixth goal of the season on 58 minutes. Green Island pulled one back with 16 minutes left through Jonty Davidson but could not find the equaliser and succumbed to their fifth one-goal loss of the season. Mosgiel retained second place and claimed the Blair Davidson Trophy with a 4-0 win over Old Boys in Invercargill. Harvey Stephens and Matt Adye scored goals inside the first 10 minutes, and Mosgiel made the game safe in the last 15 minutes when Ben Wood burst forward to score and Stephens got his second. University beat the Dunedin City Royals 3-1. Blake Fairbairn’s goal on 15 minutes was cancelled out by Hamish Keats’ equaliser for the Royals three minutes before the break. University retook the lead when Eddy Sneyd-Utting scored his first goal of the season two minutes after the restart, and Fairbairn claimed his seventh goal of the season in injury time to ensure the students remain in third place. Queens Park moved into fourth place, leapfrogging Roslyn-Wakari by beating them 3-0 at Ellis Park. The Southlanders took an early lead when a deep free kick was launched into Roslyn’s box and George Edwards was left unmarked to score from close range. Rodrigo Schmidt De Camargo doubled the lead with a 67th minute penalty, and Anton Fitzgerald — in his 50th appearance for Queens Park — sealed the win with five minutes to play when he lobbed the keeper from well outside the penalty box when Roslyn gifted him the ball. • The Dunedin City Royals beat Universities of Canterbury 2-0 in the South Island women’s league on Saturday. Georgia Keen and Hannah Mackay-Wright scored within minutes of each other for the Royals late in the game. Roslyn-Wakari fell to a 6-1 loss to Cashmere Technical yesterday. Lucy Dermody gave Roslyn the lead but Dorothy Yek and former southern favourite Margarida Dias scored for Cashmere late in the first half, Yek got her second after the break, Dias completed her hat-trick and Tess Toombs completed the scoring. The game between Otago University and Nelson Suburbs was cancelled as the latter team’s flight out of Wellington was disrupted due to bad weather. — Neville Watson
