PREVIEW: Women's Central League heads into final stages

By Warren Olson

The penultimate round of the Women’s Central league takes place this weekend after fixture disruption in the past fortnight.

Barring slip-ups by leading clubs Waterside Karori and Wellington United, the title won’t be determined until that pair face off in a postponed game set down for September 7, a week after the season’s planned end.

Playing this Saturday are:

Palmerston North Marist v Wellington United

Sitting two points behind league leaders Waterside Karori but with a game in hand, United will be well aware they can’t afford to drop any points on the run-in.

Win their remaining two games and then win or draw the postponed game against Karori and the cherished title is theirs.

Palmerston North Marist are safe in mid-table and bounced back from a poor 7-1 defeat to Karori in round 11 with a resounding 5-0 win of their own over Victoria University in round 12.

Grace Smith was back at the helm for the Green and Whites and made a big difference as promising youngster Ruby-Aroha Gurnick soon nabbed a brace.

Both will need to be at their best to keep United at bay, whose fast attacking play is well suited to turf pitches, as will be the case in Palmerston.

Key attacking duo Hannah Pilley and Nat Olson will be out to extend their record, although to date not much has been seen of them on the pitch together.

United’s attacking options don’t end there, of course, as right through to defenders Zoe Barrott and Hope Gilchrist, the Orange and Blues are packed with potential goal-scorers.

With their depth of talent, the visitors should prove too strong.

Prediction: Palmerston North 0 Wellington United 4

Waterside Karori v Petone

While Petone are capable of doing Wellington United a huge favour and taking points off Karori, their current loss of form and Karori’s formidable home record makes this seem less likely than earlier in the season where Karori struggled to record a 1-0 away win.

Karori supporters had their hearts in their mouths last week as an error at the back saw Moturoa take an early lead against the Magpies, and some fine saves by the ‘Naki keeper Harriet Muller kept the home side in it until a second-half brace by Kendall Pollock restored nerves and title aspirations.

Nikki Furukawa has that attacker’s ability to be at the right place in the box at the right time, and Karori will be keen to see her extend her lead in the Golden Boot race.

Jess Shilton giving the orders and running plays from the back is a vital cog in the Black and Whites defence that can look a little shakey when she is absent (not surprisingly the word is the Phoenix camp have an eye on her) so being at full strength they will be expected to see off Petone.

The Blues do have plenty of attacking talent themselves but opportunities for Dani Ohlsson, Pepi Oliver-bell and Sydney Williams have been limited recently.

A 5-1 victory against Victoria University last week could mean they’ve turned the corner in that regard. I can see a desperate Karori getting the vital 3 points.

Prediction: Waterside Karori 3 Petone 1

Victoria University v Seatoun

The battle of the cellar dwellers completes the round, though with University on seven points and Seatoun yet to trouble the scorer, the dreaded wooden spoon is already heading to the seaside.

Seatoun showed patches of form against Waterside Karori last week and were able to find the net, albeit via an own-goal.

For their part, Victoria University have fare a little better, scoring only twice in their last four games while conceding 21.

It’s hard to see just where the goals might come from in this one.

Prediction: Victoria University 0, Seatoun 0

Golden Boot

10 — Nikki Furukawa (Waterside Karori)
7 — Hope Gilchrist (Wellington United), Natalie Olson (Wellington United), Ruby-Aroha Gurnick (Palmerston North Marist), Danielle Ohlsson (Petone)
6 — Maddison Hughes (Taradale), Kya Solomon (Taradale)
5 — Pepi Oliver-Bell (Petone), Sasha Rasmussen (Moturoa), Kendall Pollock (Waterside Karori), Fernanda Toscani (Moturoa),
4 — Renee Bacon (Waterside Karori), Kennedy Bryant (Waterside Karori), Bella Cartman (Wellington United), Tessa Brownlie (Victoria University), Phoebe Gray (Petone)
3 — Misha Koyari (Wellington United), Grace Smith. (Palmerston North Marist), Libby Boobyer (Petone), Jemma Catherwood (Wellington United), Melissa McKenna (Palmerston North Marist), Hannah Pilley (Wellington United), Isabella Yarwood (Palmerston North Marist), Rihanna Houghton (Waterside Karori), Misha Koyari (Wellington United), Maddison Hughes (Taradale), Kate Marra (Petone), Sydney Williams (Petone)