Northland keen to step up effort

After losing  against Canterbury and Midlands, Northland women  seek improvement in their remaining games of the week-long National Hockey League tournament at Christchurch.
"We are doing everything fine but not as well as we've hoped," coach Grant McLeod said.
"Our execution maybe hasn't been as good as it could have - our passing hasn't been that great or our anticipation - but we are performing reasonably well, we just need to step up a level or two."
Canterbury stole the limelight on Saturday, with Kate Saunders striking her second goal from a penalty corner to win the game, 2-1 in the final 10 seconds.
"We were unlucky to get the corner against us but that's the way it is in tournaments," McLeod said.
Saunders scored initially for Canterbury after Northland had dominated in the opening 20 minutes.
Northland lifted again in the second half, creating scoring opportunities but they were only able to convert one of them, thanks to a great shot by the Black Sticks' Anna Thorpe, levelling the game before Canterbury snatched the victory.
In yesterday's  match, Northland were playing catch-up hockey from the outset after Midlands scored early in the game.
Charlotte Harrison equalised  after Sumaria Tugaga fed her the ball from her new spot at striker.
The under-16 player was repositioned up front when Megan McGregor was ruled out of the match due to an abdominal injury.
 During the second half, Midlands went onto score their second goal followed by the "final nail in the coffin" with four minutes left to win 3-1.
"Again we created opportunities in the first half but we aren't finishing them - it makes life tough when you are only getting one goal in a match."
Tonight  at 5pm, McLeod's troops face Central who have two tournament wins, and will pose another challenge for Northland.