Southern Utd women keen to make positive start to season

Terry Parle

For the Southern United women, this weekend represents the first chance of the year to test themselves against the best.

The team kicks off its national women’s football league season against Auckland at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin tomorrow.

Searching for its first win in several years, Southern will be up against the same opponent it nearly toppled in its last game of 2016.

However, Auckland looks to have bolstered its squad since it escaped with that 4-3 win and poses a tough challenge first up for Southern.

Despite that, coach Terry Parle said the players were excited to get the season under way.

"The girls are looking forward to it, especially with the first game being under the roof in the stadium," he said.

"As players, they’ve got to want to test themselves against the best and the league is the best girls in Dunedin, so it’s a good test."

The team has made some quality additions since last year, with the likes of Elise Mamanu-Gray and Shontelle Smith back from overseas.

Football South’s female player of the year, Queenstown’s Eleanor Isaac, would also be a valuable addition.There are several handy players returning including the southern league’s top goal-scorer, Renee Bacon, and young player of the year Mikayla Gray.

Parle had been looking to instil a possession-based style of play and the team had bought into it well.

While he said getting a win would be great, the players were more focused on its own performance.

"The purpose of football is to score goals and stop goals.

"So we’re going in with a positive attitude and we’re going to play to the best of our abilities and if we buy into our processes, obviously the result will come.

"So we’re hoping for a win but football’s a funny old mistress. You can’t guarantee anything in it.

"You go into the game looking to win the game, and any coach that tells you anything different wants to look at the reason why they’re coaching.

"But we’re going in with a positive attitude and for us as long as the girls come off there saying we’ve done our best and if it all goes well and we’ve done our best, then we’ll have a win."

In the national women’s league, each of the seven teams play each other once, before the pre-final and final on December 3 and 10.

The men’s national youth league also begins this weekend, with Southern playing Auckland City at Tahuna Park.

It takes a break for Labour Weekend, after which it will follow a draw which mirrors that of the senior men’s team through to December 16.

The senior men’s national league side begins next weekend against Auckland City at Sunnyvale, while the futsal team begins with home games against Canterbury United the same weekend.