Northland FC women's football team suffer first loss of 2019 campaign

Northland's premier women's team will need to put their heads together to get back to winning ways. Photo / Supplied

The Northland FC women's team will want to focus on shooting drills for the next two weeks after their tough 1-0 loss to Eastern Suburbs Yellow on Sunday in Auckland.

The side, which competes in the AFF/NFF women's conference, couldn't replicate the success of their first round victory against Hibiscus Coast from the week before and had to settle for the one-goal defeat.

More accustomed to a counter-attacking style, Northland sat back and allowed their southern opponents the majority of possession, but were not able to punish Eastern Suburbs' errors and claim a vital goal.

Team coach Alan Witt said he was disappointed with the result because it could have gone either way.

"Basically, I thought we played a really good team who were educated and drilled, but I don't think we played to our strengths very well.

"We could have taken a couple of chances that we missed, but it was evenly-matched with good quality from both sides."

Eastern Suburbs scored the deciding goal with about 15 minutes to go. Witt said the goal came as a result of constant pressure on his defence.

"They dominated possession but we dominated the clear-cut chances [to score]," he said.

"Defensively we were okay, we defended for long periods of time and they didn't create much, but they only had the one clear-cut chance which they took and that was the difference."

Witt hoped his younger players would benefit from the experience playing at this level and would become familiar with the skill required to compete.

"We have a few younger players to bring up to speed which takes a bit of time, they've only just come from under-16s so they probably lack a bit of knowledge and ability formation-wise.

"We might not do anything major this year but we would be even with most teams, so it just depends on how we turn up on the day because we have the ability to beat all these teams."

The team wouldn't play over the Easter break and would return to the competition for a home game against Norwest United at Tikipunga Park 1 at 1pm on April 28.

"I think it'd be good to score a couple of goals in that game, put away some of the chances and get some confidence," Witt said.

In the local women's premier competition, Central Brown recorded a big result against Kamo, drawing 1-1 on Sunday. Against a traditionally strong Kamo, Central Brown's draw should give them confidence going into the rest of the season.

In the round's other games, Bream Bay United beat Tikipunga AFC 2-0, Kerikeri Fairview beat Madhatters Stonehaven 3-0 and Onerahi Heritage Homes beat Kaitaia United 5-0.