When their backs are against the wall, you can always count on Southern United to find a way out.
After conceding an early goal, Southern United fought their way back to beat Canterbury United Pride 2-1 at Logan Park Turf yesterday.
The victory extended the Dunedin-based team’s winning streak to four, and elevated them to second place in the National Women’s League.
It was a physical battle in which Southern’s strength was tested from the first whistle, as Canterbury set a frantic pace to open the game.
"Was it a pretty win? No," Southern United head coach Kris Ridley said.
"But you’ll take an ugly win as long as you get the three points."
He conceded Canterbury put his side under pressure early and tested Southern’s game plan, their first real challenge since the opening rounds.
"We like to press, and we like to get in [their] face nice and early. But they won the kick-off, they pressed us and they actually had ... a really good game plan.
"They opened us up and kept us at quite a distance in our midfield, which we don’t like to do, but we had to adjust."
It was a fast opening 10 minutes, with both sides battling for the ball.
Canterbury used the middle of the field to slice through Southern’s defence, and recycled quick ball upfield, which paid dividends when Nicola Dominikovich found the back of the net in the 11th minute.
Southern had a couple of chances go begging as they worked their way back into the game, with Amy Hislop busy up front.
But they were unable to make a breakthrough and trailed 1-0 heading in to halftime.
Southern came out of the break strongly, playing with more width throughout the park, giving themselves more of a chance.
And that chance came in the 51st minute when Hannah Mackay-Wright had a couple of goes at the goal, before hardworking Freya Partridge-Moore got a nice touch to level the scores 1-1.
Southern then made a couple of tactical changes, with Jemma Wilson and Maddy McCormick entering to open things up.
"We were chasing the game," Ridley said.
"The coaching staff, I guess, giving the instructions to the girls that went on and we scored pretty much within a minute and half, two minutes ... it was great."
That goal came in the 60th minute. Hislop fired in a nice cross and McCormick — with her first touch — tapped it down to Rankin to finish it off and gain her team a 2-1 lead.
Southern were more clinical in the second half, putting in lovely balls to each other to find themselves in the right part of the field more often than not.
But there were a few finishing touches missing — Rankin’s other chance rolled down the side, Kendrah Smith hit the crossbar and Hislop went wide several times — which meant Canterbury were not further punished.
It was still an impressive fightback from the southerners, who looked to be in trouble early and put out a gusty effort to keep Canterbury out.
Defenders Toni Power and Mackay-Wright were rock-solid at the back for Southern, putting their bodies on the line to deflect Canterbury, and supplied good ball to their forwards.
In the other games, Auckland United jumped to top spot after beating Ellerslie 1-0.
Their rise came through Western Springs handing Eastern Suburbs a surprising 4-0 loss — their first of the season — to push the defending champions to third.
Wellington United beat Phoenix Reserves 3-2 and Waterside beat Karori 3-1.
National League
The scores
Southern United 2
Freya Partridge-Moore 51’, Abby Rankin 60’
Canterbury United Pride 1
Nicola Dominikovich 11’
Halftime: Canterbury 1-0
