One win in five matches is not normally cause for celebration.
But the Southern women's team has never finished higher than seventh, so a high five, at the very least, was appropriate after yesterday's 3-2 win against Northland.
Southern snapped a four-year losing streak last season with a 3-2 win against Capital but still finished last.
This season, the team has set the goal of making the playoff for fifth and sixth and appear on track.
Southern opened the scoring through impressive striker Pip Symes and went up 2-0 shortly after the halftime break when Monique Wilson found the back of the net.
The elusive win, though, looked to have slipped away when Northland answered back with two goals to level the score.
But a superb pass out of defence found Symes and she beat the goalie in a one-on-one situation to seal the win.
Southern, which led 1-0 at halftime, plays the highly-rated Auckland tomorrow but coach Sam Brown said the side is targeting its final round-robin match against Central on Thursday and first crossover game on Saturday and may rest some key players.
"Southern have never finished above seventh so if we can get a win [in the crossover game], we'll get to play off for fifth and sixth," he said.
"That would make us the most successful Southern women's side."
Midfielder Aimee Heaps had a strong game and linked well with Australian import Sofie McLeod.
Defensively, Courtney Ross and Belinda Smith were solid but Symes was once again the star through her ability to convert scoring opportunities.
The Southern men's side wants to break into the top four this season. A surprise 3-2 win against Midlands on Sunday and 4-3 win against Capital in the opening weekend has given the side plenty of confidence.
But its newly discovered belief was tested yesterday against a skilful North Harbour team.
Harbour scored two second half goals to win the fixture 3-1 and Southern coach Dave Ross conceded his side looked tired and lacked energy.
"It was always going to be tough to back up after the effort against Midlands," Ross said.
"We spent a lot of energy and, to be honest, struggled a bit. We are still in the hunt. We've got Central [tomorrow] and Northland to come, so we still have a shot at the top four."
Drag flick specialist Kane Russell scored Southern's only goal from a penalty corner shortly before the halftime. But despite going into the break even, Ross felt his side was labouring with the pace of the game.
"Harbour is a quality side.
Obviously, you have to be right on your game to have a crack and we were just fractionally off. I thought we were a bit tired and suffered from a bit of fatigue."
