At last, Northland pull off win after several close calls

It was a long time coming, but Northland women finally collared their first National Hockey League victory against Wellington.
Northland have had several close calls during the week-long tournament where games could have easily gone their way, including a 2-2 draw with Auckland on Wednesday. But last night
 at Christchurch's Porritt Park, Northland gave it their all to  win 2-1.
While coach Grant McLeod was extremely pleased with the victory, he lamented what could have been. "We created  opportunities in the first five to 10 minutes where we should have scored two, but we somehow managed to miss both."
Jade McLeod opened the scoring, finishing off some strong build-up play from the team, who were executing basic skills well.
Wellington chased Northland down and scored five minutes into the second half to equalise, but Charlotte Harrison and Ella Gunson worked tirelessly to get the ball to Anna Weir, who lined up the goal and slammed the ball away, sealing the match with five minutes left on the clock.
"They (Wellington) put us under the hammer in the second half and they could have scored several times," McLeod said.
"We scrambled a bit at times ... but the girls stuck to their guns and played their hearts out and fully deserved to win."
Northland women, after a rest day today, face Southern tomorrow  - a match which has plenty riding on it.
The highest Northland can play for now is fifth and, to do that, they need to defeat Southern, and Canterbury to beat Wellington tomorrow, McLeod says.
Fresh on the back of their impressive 2-1 win against Central, which boosted them to fifth in the standings, Northland men faced the large task of facing a smart Canterbury outfit last night.
 While Northland suffered a 5-2 loss, coach Vicki Gribble was very proud of how her side stepped up for the occasion.
Skipper Sam Webb snatched an opportunity and scored off a penalty corner to help close the lead Canterbury had scampered to and, after halftime, Brad McLeod scored Northland's second goal to tighten things up with Canterbury in front 3-2.
"It was 3-2 for a huge period of time and then a few of the umpire's decisions went their (Canterbury's) way and they scored from penalty corners," Gribble said.
Northland defended extremely well, fending off five penalty corners that expert drag-flicker Black Stick Hayden Shaw fired their way for Canterbury.
Northland play Wellington tomorrow  and will be aiming to play off for fifth. But they  had to beat Wellington and see if Southern beat Central in their clash first, Gribble said.