The most important football league in the region reaches its tenth round; Auckland City continues three points clear Team Wellington in the leadership of the table, both sides are now separated from all other eight clubs in the league as Team Wellington now have a 6-point margin from the 3rd placed side Hawke’s Bay United.
Tasman will hope to continue their good run in the season as they host Southern United in Blenheim at the beautiful Lansdowne Park. Tasman expects a lot of support from the home crowd to achieve for the first in the season two wins a row, as they won Eastern Suburbs in Nelson by 2-0 in the previous round.
Southern will hope to be back to their winning days after a hard fought draw away from home against Wellington Phoenix Reserves, with a late equalizer coming from Andrew Cromb.
Auckland City might not have an easy challenge as they face the 3rd placed side currently in the ladder Hawke’s Bay United. After two draws, the team came strong against Waitakere United and recorded an emphatic 6-2 victory over the city rivals. Myer Bevan scored again and tops the goalscoring lists with 10 in the season.
Hawke’s Bay hopes to recover rapidly after a harsh defeat in Wellington against the 2nd placed Team Wellington at David Farrington Park. The club saw a good streak broken in their first match of the year and hopes to grab points in a match that tends to be very hard for them in Auckland.
Waitakere United started very well the season, but in the current moment the team has dropped many points and only sits 9th in the table. Their harsh defeat against the rivals Auckland City put them back to the bottom of the table and they will really need a good game against Wellington Phoenix Reserves in Wellington to be back in contention. If there was something good for Waitakere it was the goal scored by the young striker Rayhan Carlson-Du Toit – his first in ISPS Handa Premiership.
Wellington Phoenix Reserves played a 1-1 draw against Southern in Sky Stadium in the previous week and hopes to grab more points when they enter the pitch to take on Waitakere this Sunday.
Canterbury United had their worst 10 minutes of the season against Hamilton Wanderers: they came from 1-0 to a 1-3 rapidly and lost all points playing at home, despite pulling upfront in the scoreboard through a goal from George King.
Eastern Suburbs will travel to Christchurch to face the Dragons and both sides will be desperate to recover from their defeats in the previous round; Suburbs was also beaten away from home against Tasman United and sits now only 6th in the table.
Hamilton Wanderers have much to celebrate as they entered the top four and won in fashion Canterbury in Christchurch. Semmy brace was instrumental for the recovery in the scoreboard in the final moments of the encounter. The team that started very bad the season is now completely recovered and balanced to pursue their goals in the season.
Team Wellington travels to Hamilton and will have certainly a very hard match in front of the opposition crowd and of an inspired duo Semmy & Tieku. TeeDubs need a win if they want to keep in the race for the first place in the standings with Auckland City and they know they will the likes of Hamish Watson and Jack Henry-Sinclair if they want to beat the Wanderers in this round.
You can check the updated standings, top goalscoers and full results of the season so far by clicking here and visiting our session of New Zealand football in Oceania Football Center.
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