Southern United has secured two draws in its pre-season matches over the weekend.
After splitting honours with Canterbury United 2-2 in Timaru on Saturday, a late Ben Wade goal enabled it to back up with a 1-1 result against Tasman United in Christchurch yesterday.
New signing Garbhan Coughlin scored first against Canterbury, giving Southern a 1-0 buffer 30 minutes in, before Canterbury United hit back soon after.An Omar Guardiola flick-in from set piece gave Southern the lead back late in the game, but Canterbury again equalised.
In the second game against Tasman, the sides remained scoreless at halftime.
Tasman scored first before impressive youngster Wade equalised.
Southern coach Paul O’Reilly was happy with the weekend.
He felt the side had got the better of Canterbury, but said Tasman probably shaded it although the team was heavy-legged in that second game.
"It was two decent performances, lots of positives to take away," he said.
"A lot of stuff to still work on, but two half-decent results and performances, so positive enough."
He said the team was solid defensively, both in its work rate and structure, giving the opposition few opportunities to score.
In-possession play was something to keep working on, although he felt that would improve as the players had more time together.
Ideally, the side would have liked more pre-season games, although that was not possible with the northern teams not travelling south for them.
That team now looks forwardto its national football league opener at Sunnyvale against Auckland City on October 22.
