We’re halfway through the 2021 NSW NPL Women’s season and while the weather is cooling down, the football is heating up! Come and warm your frosty fingers by the fire of this week’s Beyond90 wrap.
Match of the Round: Manly United vs Sydney University
2020 NSW NPL Women’s champions Manly United again claimed bragging rights over Sydney University, defeating the reigning premiers 2-1 at Cromer Park in the sides’ first match since last year’s grand final.
Goals at either extreme of the second half to Remy Siemsen – who missed the decider with a hamstring injury – and Caitlin Jarvie cancelled out Uni skipper Taren King’s towering header to earn Manly another three points.
Uni had the best of the early exchanges, coming closest after 20 minutes as Sarah Morgan hit the woodwork from distance before Kaitlin Torpey fired her shot into the post at point-blank range.
Uni again went within inches of opening the scoring minutes before half-time, with King winning a front-post header from a well-delivered corner, only for Libby Copus-Brown to clear off the line and away to safety.
That profligacy in front of goal would come back to bite the Students immediately after the break as Manly hit the front with a trademark Siemsen sucker-punch; winning possession from a throw-in just inside the Uni box, Tara Andrews flicked a pass over her defender to the onrushing Siemsen, who hit a perfectly-timed volley past sprawling goalkeeper Georgia Borić for her fifth goal of the season.
Manly would have doubled its lead 15 minutes later but for the brilliance of Borić in goal, acrobatically saving Nicole Stuart’s long range effort from nestling in the top corner.
Uni would eventually equalise through their captain King, who rose highest in a crowded penalty area with 10 minutes of the 90 remaining to nod home among a pack of defenders before gleefully skipping away in celebration.
The Students could – and probably should – have taken the lead five minutes later, again through King’s aerial brilliance, her header finding the sliding substitute Demi Koulizakis who could only watch her shot again be brilliantly saved low down by Manly glovewoman Isabella Whitton.
And that dextrous brilliance from Whitton would indirectly earn her side three points, as Siemsen wove through defenders outside the Uni penalty area moments later before laying a perfectly-weighted pass for Jarvie to blast into the net from all of 25 yards.
Manly United 2 (Siemsen 46′ Jarvie 86′)
Sydney University 1 (King 80′)
Around the Grounds
Illawarra Stingrays 2 Blacktown Spartans 5
Emerging Jets 1 Bankstown City 3
Sydney Olympic 1 NW Sydney Koalas 2
Football NSW Institute 1 APIA Leichhardt 1
Northern Tigers 2 Macarthur Rams 0
| Team | G | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Macarthur Rams | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 11 | +10 | 22 |
| 2 | Northern Tigers | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 25 | 15 | +10 | 19 |
| 3 | Football NSW Institute | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 10 | +7 | 19 |
| 4 | APIA Leichhardt | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 19 | 13 | +6 | 18 |
| 5 | Sydney Olympic | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 23 | 13 | +10 | 17 |
| 6 | Blacktown Spartans | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 19 | 18 | +1 | 15 |
| 7 | Sydney University | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 13 | +1 | 14 |
| 8 | Illawarra Stingrays | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 19 | 20 | -1 | 14 |
| 9 | Manly United | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 19 | +1 | 13 |
| 10 | NW Sydney Koalas | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 19 | -5 | 9 |
| 11 | Bankstown City | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 23 | -16 | 7 |
| 12 | Emerging Jets | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 29 | -24 | 0 |
