Strong finish not enough for Southern

Northern’s Ava Pritchard (left) and Southern United’s Emily Morison in action during their national women’s league match at Sunnyvale Park yesterday. Photo: Gregor Richardson

A stronger second half was not enough to save the Southern United women yesterday.

It went down 2-1 to the Northern Lights at Sunnyvale Park, diminishing further its already slim chance of a top three finish in the national women’s league.

Southern had the better of the final 40 minutes.It dominated possession and limited Northern’s opportunities.

However, genuine chances were few and far between for Southern.It trailed 2-0 when Britney-Lee Nicholson finally gave the home side some respite in the 58th minute.

She was set up after a nice piece of work from Mikayla Gray, before striking it in off the inside of the right post.

From there Southern had several other half-chances, but nothing decisive.

In contrast, Northern probably should have gone further ahead.

Twice it put good chances over the crossbar, while in the final minutes a third went wide of goal to the left.

However, the damage had been done earlier.It had been an end-to-end first 20 minutes, as both sides contended with a howling wind and teeming rain, which made things tough. Southern had the first chance, when Georgia Brown put one just over the top right corner.

Northern took the lead in the 27th minute, though, just after the rain stopped.It worked the ball well and Claudia Bunge found herself one-on-one with keeper Jordan Woodward from close range to the right.

Woodward did well to keep it out on the first attempt; however, Bunge followed and scored off the rebound.

Southern had the better of the second half, but Northern started stronger.It came out looking to apply pressure and made that count by going two up when Malia Steinmetz finished off a corner.

Southern continued to attack from there and while it controlled the ball and did find its way through once, it struggled to create genuine chances.

The result leaves the side on seven points and virtually out of the running for the playoffs.

Northern moves to second on 17 points, trailing Canterbury United, which got its season back on track with a 3-1 win over WaiBOP.

More crucially for Southern, Capital beat Central 5-0 to move to 13 points, one behind Auckland, which had a bye.Southern has four games remaining, while Auckland and Capital both have one in hand.