Northland premier women's football: Rain and defaults plague fixtures

Madhatters' Lara Bennetto (centre) takes the ball up the middle of a soggy William Fraser Park on Sunday against Bream Bay. Photo / Devon Finlayson

Only half of Northland's premier women's football fixtures got under way on Sunday, with rain and defaults seeing three games unplayed.

Northland FC's women's team was defaulted to in their Federation Cup fixture against Hibiscus Coast reserves, while Kamo were unable to play their game against Norwest in the Federation Cup plate.

In the Northland Women's Premier Cup, Kerikeri's game against Kaitaia had to be called off due to torrential rain making the surface unplayable. Thankfully, Madhatters' fixture against Bream Bay was able to go ahead after a 35-minute delay.

Despite the conditions, Madhatters claimed a 3-nil win with three second half goals. Coach Brendon Gray said his side was unlucky not to score early with a lion's share of territory and possession.

"We just hadn't managed to put anything away and [Bream Bay] had a couple of good one-on-ones, which could have totally changed the result," he said.

Gray credited his team's win to goalkeeper Jojo Pickering, who secured the clean-sheet in tricky conditions.

Now out of the knockout competition, Bream Bay coach Stuart McDonald commended Madhatters on adapting more quickly to the conditions. Sitting in fourth on the league ladder, McDonald said the team's focus would be to hold their top-four position.

"We have never been above second-to-last as of last year and if we beat Kamo on Sunday, we'll go to third so that's our target, just to keep third."

Other games to go ahead were Onerahi's 6-1 league competition win over Bay Cosmos in the Bay of Islands, while Central Brown lost 6-0 to Norwest in the Federation Cup plate competition at Otaika Sports Park.