MATCH OF THE ROUND
Gosford v Umina
WPL Round 6 Match of the Round does not get much bigger than this, 1st taking on 2nd and a 2020 WPL Grand Final replay.
Gosford enters their match against Umina as the only WPL team with a perfect start to the season, having 5 wins from 5 rounds. Gosford has amazingly only conceded once in their opening 5 rounds with their only goal against coming from Wyong in round 1, since then the Dragons have gone on to keep 4 clean sheets in a row. Not only do they have the best defence in the competition, but Gosford, along with opposition Umina also share the best attacking with both teams scoring a massive 27 goals each so far this year.
Gosford coach Pete Edwards understands this is his squad’s biggest game of the year against very talented opposition. “Every year we always highlight Umina as one of the top teams and this season is no exception. I have huge respect for the girls in the Umina team. They have a lot of talented players, good depth and are always tough opposition. Steve is a great coach and a great guy, I’ll be looking forward to the banter and chats on the sideline as always. As for my girls, we are on a roll. We have picked up some good momentum and every week are showing improvements in key areas. We’ll be pumped up and ready to go come game day! It’s going to be another prime example of the quality in women’s football on the coast.”
Umina dropped points for the first time last week after splitting points with Kanwal in a 3-3 draw. Umina’s only losses since August 2019 in WPL have come at the hands of Gosford. Umina did get the best of the Dragons last year when they won the Grand Final on penalties to be crowned the 2020 WPL Premiers. Umina’s Kate Styles has been in outstanding form this year as she finds herself with 11 goals after 5 rounds and on top of the WPL golden boot. Despite dropping points last weekend, a win for the E-Gals would see them go straight into 1st place as they look to hand Gosford their first loss this year.
Umina coach Steve Donaldson is very aware of the challenge his side faces this weekend and is looking forward to the challenge. “The only team to have beaten us in the competition since August 2019 is Gosford, so we’re aware of the talent they possess. Pete has them well drilled every occasion we’ve played them and it’s always such an entertaining game of football. We’re without a couple of key players heading into the game which makes the task even tougher, but we have enough quality across the park to hopefully get the job done.”
Kanwal v Terrigal
Last year’s Elimination Final gets a replay this weekend as Kanwal host Terrigal at Wadalba Sports Complex.
Kanwal are coming off a very tough run of games and it doesn’t get any easy for the Bulls side this weekend. Kanwal went down to 1st place Gosford in round 4 before splitting the points with 2nd place Umina last week, this weekend’s opposition Terrigal currently sits in 3rd place and Kanwal will be in search for their first win in 3 weeks. Kanwal fell short to Terrigal 2-1 during last year’s regular-season before edging out the O’lasses in their elimination final match which went to extra time. Kanwal will look to assert themselves back into a finals position with a win at home come Sunday.
Terrigal has been outstanding so far in the 2021 WPL season and will look to keep the momentum going with a win this weekend would make it 4 in a row for the Terrigal side. Terrigal could jump Umina on the ladder and go into 2nd place with a win over Kanwal and granted results go their way. The O’lasses have the 2nd best defence in the comp, having only conceded 3 goals against so far, this whole year. Terrigal will be out looking for revenge over the side who knocked them out of finals last year.
Kariong v Southern & Ettalong
Kariong are still looking for their initial points of the year and will look to do so in front of a home crowd as they welcome Southern & Ettalong to Kariong Oval for round 6.
Kariong has unfortunately been without key players due to injury to start the WPL season which has not helped the side who are under-performing. Kariong continues to play great football in periods of play but have lacked finding consistency over the whole 90 minutes. Kariong only faced this Southern side once last year and, on that occasion, they could not come out victorious going down 5-1. The Cougars will be looking to tighten up their backline as they will look for their first clean sheet of the season and hopefully with that, their first win of 2021.
Southern enters round 6 having picked up a 1-0 win over Killarney after a very disappointing round 4 result. A win this weekend would mark their 4th win as Southern and their new coach Augusto Terra look to play finals football after missing out last year. SEU find themselves within the top 5 of the competition so far, but with only 6 goals recorded for their team, that is the lowest amongst the other clubs also within the top 5. Despite that, Southern has scored at least once in every game since being held scoreless in round 1 and will look to keep that going against Kariong.
Wyong v Woongarrah
Wyong will host Woongarrah come round 6 as both sides are thirsting for 3 points.
Wyong will be looking to keep their first clean sheet of the year as they take on Woongarrah who are yet to score in any other of their opening 5 games. Wyong possess the worst defensive record in the league, having conceded 23 goals in the opening 5 rounds. Wyong has managed to find the scoresheet in all their games including being the only team so far this season who have scored against 1st place Gosford. Wyong will be confident they can pick up their 2nd win of the year against a struggling Woongarrah.
Woongarrah’s attacking worries continue as they remain scoreless for the 2021 season. Despite this, Dave Hurley’s Wildcats side are coming up against statistically the worst defence in WPL and will be hopeful that they can end this run of scoreless games. This marks Woongarrah’s 3rd away fixture in a row, but this is the first encounter between the two sides therefore a lot will be unknown about the opposition’s players and game style.
Killarney v East Gosford
Killarney looks to overcome last weekend’s defeat and get back on the winner’s column as they welcome tough opposition East Gosford.
Killarney have had a very up and down season so far after 5 rounds of competition, whenever the Terriers side has won, they have managed to keep a clean sheet but whenever Adam Tait’s side has lost, they have not managed to score in that fixture. Behind Woongarrah, Killarney has scored the least number of goals in the competition thus far (4). Killarney will have an advantage over the Rams side beating them 1-0 on the only occasion the two sides faced last year.
After a disappointing couple of weeks, Jorge Chavez’s East Gosford side got back to winning ways last week with a 4-2 victory over Wyong. The Rams started the season like a house on fire, not conceding in the opening two matches of the year but unfortunately, they were rattled with multiple injuries to key players and lost back-to-back matches. The Rams are starting to welcome back these players they lost via injury as they look to keep within the top 4 with another win this weekend.
Written by Adam Blunden.