Women fail to hang on to lead

The Southern United women’s side threw away a lead to go down 3-2 to Auckland in the city of sails yesterday.

The Southern side was up 2-1 at halftime but could not hold on as Auckland pressed hard and eventually ran out the winner, 3-2. It scored the go-ahead goal through Sam Muirhead with 15 minutes to go and although that left time for Southern to bounce back and score, it came up empty-handed.

It had all started so well for the visitors, who came out firing and showed good intent.

With the defence working hard and not giving much space to the Auckland attack, the Southern team was more than a match for Auckland.

Emily Morison put her side ahead just before the half-hour mark with a well taken goal after a breakdown in the home side’s defence.

Two defenders looked at each other instead of attacking the ball and Morison slipped in to put the ball into the back of the net.

Auckland quickly came back, however, and had the equaliser when Grace Jale fired in a shot from far out that went into the back of the net.

But two minutes later, Southern was back in front when Morison got in behind the defence and calmly slotted the ball home.

That gave the visiting players some confidence and they played some good football in the final minutes before halftime.

But as often happens, halftime came at just the wrong time for Southern and Auckland came out with a better attitude and more focus in the second half.

It worked hard, although Southern stood strong on defence and there were some cool heads at the back for the visitors.

The defensive wall was eventually broken when Jale found the ball after a nice move through the Auckland midfield and she scored to tie the game up.

The home team now had the impetus and went hunting for the go-ahead goal. It came to the home team after 75 minutes when Muirhead found the back of the net with a nice shot into the bottom corner.

Southern United looked for the equaliser and Mikayla Gray went close but her shot was saved near the end.