Southern United face Central Football in Round 2 of the National League: South Central Series on Saturday. The match marks Southern’s return to their home ground of Logan Park and coach Graeme Smaill is looking forward to playing in front of a home crowd, “It’s exciting but there’s a wee bit of apprehension as expectations will be higher now from the football community with last weekend’s result!” 

In the opening round, Southern confidently overcame South Island rivals Canterbury Pride, coming back from a goal behind to win 2-1. Emily Morison netted the equaliser thanks to a lovely piece of play that saw captain Rose Morton play a one touch pass to Amy Hislop who then weighted a through ball wich Emily Morison sunk home. Amy Hislop got her name on the scoresheet 15 minutes later after a Renee Bacon free kick was well controlled by Emily Morison who flicked it through to Hislop who slotted it past the Pride keeper. Graeme was delighted with his side’s performance, “We certainly enjoyed the moment, but then it’s equally important to not rest on our laurels, we’ve got 3 points but there are still another 15 up for grabs!” 

“The momentum shifted after that first goal, the girls covered so much ground over the 90 minutes and put in maximum effort throughout to prevent Canterbury from making space”. Southern coach Smaill is delighted by the unity of his squad and coaching team, “I’ve mentioned the pieces of a jigsaw before and they just seem to be there, everyone involved in Southern at the moment is contributing and performing well in their role. I think the connection between the girls is testament to that.” 

Southern have not dropped points against this weekend’s opposition since 2017 and Smaill is cautious of underestimating Central, “It adds pressure, there’s an expectation that we’ll win as that’s what the history has been in the last 3 seasons, some people think it’s only Central, but remember we only got a late winner last year against them.” Smaill reflects, ‘Central put a lot of energy in last week against Capital, we’re not taking anything for granted, they're great on the counter-attack and we’ll need a similar performance to last weekend’s win.” 

Smaill expects to field a similar starting lineup to the opening round, “Barring injuries, those girls have earnt the right to step out again in Southern colours, the supporting players acknowledge that and it’s part of the culture that the team has cultivated.” Smaill reiterates that everyone involved in the Southern set-up plays a crucial part, “The support that the girls starting get from other teammates, both on the bench and in the wider squad is really important, they have an impact on the results.” 

Saturday’s match kicks off at 12pm and we hope to see some of you there to cheer on the squad. Due to Level 2 restrictions, there will be a limit of 200 spectators in 2 zones of 100. You must sign in using the QR codes and use social distancing where necessary. Spectators will be permitted on a first come, first served basis and mask wearing is encouraged. A reminder too that the game will be streamed live on Sky Sport Next with commentary coming from our own Morgan Jarvis, keep an eye out for the link in the coming days or you can subscribe to the Sky Sport Next channel.