Southern ends winless but improving

Southern United goalkeeper Catlin Taylor-Lynch clears the ball as Auckland’s Annie Byrne jumps to avoid her in the game at Tahuna Park on Saturday. Photo: Peter McIntosh.

The Southern United women’s season ended in heartbreak on Saturday.

In a thrilling contest, the side was beaten 4-3 by Auckland in the last game of its National Women’s League campaign.

Auckland scored the winner in the 85th minute.

It was a cruel end to a tough season, during which the team lost all six games.

"We felt pretty deflated after the game," assistant coach Tom Stevens said.

"We created enough chances to either keep it at 3-3 or we could have nabbed a fourth and taken all three points in the end. In saying that, Auckland created a few chances in the second half as well and [goalkeeper] Catlin [Taylor-Lynch] pulled off a couple of really good saves."

After trailing 3-0 at the half hour mark, Southern began to gain dominance. Renee Bacon finished after Holly Johnstone put the ball over the top of the defence for the first goal, before Kate Guildford headed in a cross from Mikayla Gray to make it 3-2 at the break. Bacon was at it again in the 59th minute, using the wind to put a superbly struck free kick in off the post. Both teams had their chances in the final 30 minutes, but it was Annie Byrne who was able to capitalise for Auckland in the dying stages.

Despite the loss, the Southern side had made great strides which were plain to see, after some of the lopsided scorelines early in the season.

"To come back to 3-3 after being 3-0 down, we showed a lot of resilience.

"There was potential for us to fall apart, but we held together and to get back to 3-3 was really positive. It’s something that shows as a team we’ve learnt a lot to be able to do that. I don’t think we would have been able to do that in the past."

Having overcome a 2-0 deficit to get the game back to 2-2 gave the side belief as the players were confident they had the attacking ability to peg back the deficit. Indeed, they had created several chances before their first goal and were by no means as bad as a 3-0 scoreline would suggest.

It was unfortunate the seven-team league saw each team play just six games, as Southern seemed to be just figuring out how to compete on the national level.

With an average age of 19, Southern will be better for the experience, while its nine goals in six games was a substantial improvement on four from seven last season.

"Definitely a promising finish and I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction," Stevens said.