Sunday November 25, 2018 | 11am kick-off. Tahuna Park, Dunedin

Loaded WaiBOP head south for the final time this National Women’s League season looking for a result to underline the team’s recent run of consistent performances.

Letting in two late goals to lose 3-2 against Capital last time out somewhat overshadowed a largely impressive showing from a WaiBOP team missing a clutch of players and coaching staff who are on international duty. The trick for WaiBOP this week is finding a way to turn these performances into a result or two to end the season on an extra positive note.

With the New Zealand U-17s performing so well at their World Cup, and looking forward to a quarter-final against Japan this weekend, WaiBOP will still be without their trio of players as well as head coach, Michael Mayne, and goalkeeping coach, Max Tommy. Jasmine Quilligan will continue as acting head coach for at least one more game.

Quilligan is philosophical about the Capital result. “Once again we were heartbroken, and probably even more so this time than previous encounters as we had a two-goal cushion,” she explained. “However, despite the result, I think the Capital game has proven that we can compete, we are good enough to score and are capable of getting results against the teams further up the table.

“As a group, we have addressed the fact we need to improve our reaction to factors we cannot control if we want to finish the season on the high that, I think, we very much deserve. Essentially it’s this that cost us the thee points last weekend.”

The Southern trip is another opportunity for WaiBOP to look for that elusive 90 minute effort. “The reverse fixture between the two sides was an open, goal-laden affair,” said Quilligan. “We played well in patches but I think we’re a much improved group now, so I’ll be interested to see how we go against another side that, like us, is out of finals contention. Obviously we’ll miss our U-17s as they’re continuing to do so well in Uruguay, but I believe we have the depth and the commitment from the squad to still pick up points at the back end of the season.”

“If we can keep our mentality right and put in another solid, collective effort for the full 90-plus minutes, then I think we’ll do well against Southern.”

Photo: PhotoSport.