Green Island v Roslyn Wakari

Shane Carvell and his side will be going into their match with Roslyn with a confidence boost following their 9-1 victory over Queenstown.  The sides each came out with a point in Round 1 of the Otago Daily Times Premiership and Carvell is expecting it to be a close encounter between the sides that sit in third and fourth spot respectively. Green Island Coach Carvell reflected that "Every game is a tricky proposition,over the last season or two, we've always had some pretty close exciting tussles.Roslyn have a blend of youth and experience and play good attractive football."

Terry Boylan is looking forward to the challenge of last season’s champions, Green Island, “They’re one of the form teams, they’ve got a lot of goalscoring talent and lots of good players that have returned since start of season.” He believes his defence will be able to cope well with their array of attacking options, “Their attacking threat is phenomenal, if they’re not all on form, someone else picks up the slack.  The confidence of Shane with those players is understandably high.”  

South City Royals v Queenstown 

At the midway point of the season, the Royals are perched at the top of the table. Coach Richard Murray hopes he side can continue to display a good mentality against this weekend’s opposition, "It's very important that we come out with the right attitude this weekend against Queenstown, and we step up and out match them physically and mentally." Murray was disappointed in his side’s display in the opening match of the season, "We are particularly motivated for this one as we didn't play as well as we'd hoped in the first-round match which we drew, so we want to remedy that.”  

Murray believes that Queenstown will play in a ferocious manner, “We fully expect Queenstown to come out with a point to prove like they did last year, when they conceded 9 in a game, then the week after they came out themselves and put 9 on the opposition. We're expecting a tight contest." 

Jamie Whitmarsh is hoping for his side to improve on last weekend’s outing, “It was an even contest for the first twenty but we’ve got to show more character this weekend to give us the best chance.” Whitmarsh appreciates that the Royals have had a strong season so far, “We’ve just got to put on a strong performance. The reality is, they’re not easy games in a run at the moment, we have to raise our game, we can’t expect anything if we don’t do that.”  

Mosgiel v Wanaka 

Mosgiel coach Cam McPhail will be hoping that this weekend's home fixture can lead to his side's first win of the season with his team having put in lots of effort at training over the past weeks. Both teams will be hoping to take more than a point away from a fixture that ended with a 1-1 draw back on the opening weekend of the season.

Wanaka travel to Memorial Park this weekend and Ian Bell’s side have increased confidence following their first win of the season, a 2-0 victory at home over Northern. Bell was impressed with the patience his side displayed in the win over Northern, “We will need to bring that along with more aggression in our attacking third if we are to get anything out of our trip to Memorial Park.” Head Coach Bell reflects that Mosgiel are having a similar season to theirs, “Mosgiel like us aren't getting the results they are looking for but 4 draws tells us they are very competitive.I expect this to be another challenging away game for us, as player selection is still hampered by injured and unavailable members of our squad.” 

Northern v University 

Northern have been improving as the season progresses and Varsity will have a difficult task on their hands with this weekend's visit to Forrester. Northern will be missing a few players due to Ramadan and  injury niggles. Northern will be looking to avenge their 6-1 defeat that they suffered against Varsity in the opening fixture of the season.

Darren Hart leads the team that sit second from top and he is ecstatic with having a squad that is back to full strength, “It’s great to have a full squad to pick from for the first time in a while and awesome to have good numbers at training again too.” The Varsity coach accepts it will be tricky to decide his starting 11, “It’s a bit of a selection headache this week, it’s very hard to drop people when they’ve been part of a winning team.” He has a specific game plan in mind for Northern and knows it will be a very different encounter to the opening match of the season played at the Turf, “It’ll be a combative game, they haven’t been beaten soundly at Forrester and Liam gives them great stopping power.”

Otago Daily Times Women’s Premiership

Tech v Premiers 

Craig Johnson is delighted with the return of Ruby Anderson ahead of Friday’s crunch match with Varsity, “With Ruby back we’ll play a wider game and try in get in behind the defence.” Johnson anticipates that Varsity will be strong opponents but hopes to negate their strengths, “We expect them to operate through the centre and Amy Hislop, so we hope to nullify that.” Johnson has a full strength starting 11 with the exception of Emily Morison, “We didn’t play well last weekend but hope to step up to Varsity.” 

Uni Premiers coach Stu Moffatt reflects that Friday’s opponents seem to go from strenght to strength, “They remain unbeaten and if anythiny, seem even stronger again this year.” Moffatt reflects that they have strength in depth, “Chelsea Whittaker remains a key player for Tech as she works really hard on and off the ball in the engine room for them for 95 minutes. If we lose concentration. we will get punished, especially if she has Shontelle Smith alongside her.” Moffatt expects Tech to be fired up, “Us being placed second puts us in the unenviable position of them possibly seeing us as their nearest rivals. They could very well use that psychologically to rally themselves, we will do our best and try to play to keep up.” 

Queenstown v Green Island 

Mark Ford is looking forward to Green Island visiting the Events Centre and has a strong squad available, “We are feeling pretty good ahead of this week’s game and almost have a full squad for Saturday. We are really happy with how things are tracking and the team have taken a lot of confidence from last week’s result and the performances that have gone before.” Ford has been impressed with how his team played in the first round of fixtures, “We have been defensively sound and scoring goals and many of our girls seem to be finding some good form.” 

Queenstown coach Ford expects the Island to present a stoical challenge to his side, “We absolutely expect a tough game and are not taking GI lightly but I think we are up to it, we hope to take the 3 points. We want to be pushing the teams above us!” 

Green Island’s Matthew Holdridge is hoping his side continue their battling displays with this weekend’s trip to Queenstown, “The team are playing with confidence at the moment and deserved something out of the Roslyn game.  We've taken confidence from that performance and a few lessons.”Holdridge expects Saturday’s match to be a challenge, “The girls are keen to get a result on the road this weekend, but we know it will be tough against Queenstown on their home patch.” 

Mosgiel v Roslyn Wakari 

Mosgiel’s coach Malcolm Roberts was impressed with the resilience shown by his team in last week’s defeat to Roslyn. He is excited for Round 2 of the league to get underway, “We’re applying everything we’ve learnt so far, we didn’t enjoy the result last time round against Roslyn but the girls have come a long way since the Ellis Park fixture. Roberts expects Saturday's fixture to be tough, “They have very talented youngsters amongst their team, they score important goals.” He is pleased with his side’s progress through the season so far, “We do now have genuine competition for spots in our team, bench is starting to look really strong so that helps keep our performance consistent. Hopefully the gap continues to close and we keep getting closer to where we want to be!” 

Hamish Philip will have his squad bolstered by the Div 1 team having a bye, “We’ve a full bench so it’s a great opportunity to give opportunities to the younger players. We do have two key players missing with Jemma Wilson’s wrist injury and Saffy Hare with a back problem.” 

Philip expects Mosgiel to display a stronger performance than the last time the teams met when Roslyn beat Robert’s side 11-0, “Mosgiel have improved greatly this season, theie scorelines are getting better and they’ve had a win. Branwen Jones is a key player and return of Raegan Potter is also a boost.” Philip is chuffed that his side are enjoying their football, “The girls are having more fun than they’ve had for a long time, and we’ve got Jordyn walker making her 199th first team appearances this weekend!” 

Article added: Wednesday 05 May 2021