Round 9 Preview – PS4 NPL NSW Women’s

There’s a number of mouthwatering fixtures as Round 9 of the PlayStation®4 National Premier Leagues NSW Women’s competition settles in this Sunday

Emerging Jets V Blacktown Spartans

The early kick off on Sunday takes us to Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility as the Emerging Jets take on the Blacktown Spartans.

The Jets are still in search of their first points of the season and have been battling extremely hard.

They have come close on various occasions this season and have continued improving week by week, getting closer to putting some points on the board.

The Spartans tasted defeat last week and coach Paul Costantini was not happy, promising to ring the changes.

Victory is imperative here for them to keep pace with the leading pack as they slowly start to create a gap.

North West Sydney Koalas V Illawarra Stingrays

ELS Hall Park will be the venue for the fixture between the North West Sydney Koalas and the Illawarra Stingrays.

Back-to-back wins and six goals scored last week has the Koalas coming into this fixture quite confident.

With the third best defence in the league, they’ll need it to be tight with the best attacking team in the league coming to town.

The Stingrays suffered their first defeat of the season last week and will look to bounce back immediately.

It was also the first time the ladies in pink didn’t find the back of the net this year and with some key players out again this week they’ll need Jordan Baker and captain Michelle Carney to step up.

It’s 2v3 in this one and could be already seen as an early six-pointer.

Macarthur Rams V Sydney University

It’ll be one verse four at Lynwood Park as the Macarthur Rams host top of the table Sydney University.

The Rams got back to winning ways last week, comfortably overcoming the young Emerging Jets.

They welcome back star player and captain Renee Rollason as well as Kylie Ledbrook and Leena Khamis.

The injection of experience into this young team comes at the perfect time against one of the strongest sides in the competition.

Uni are back on top of the pile and aren’t too keen of letting top place go again after a mini-slump now a few rounds back.

Victory here will create quite a gap between themselves and the Rams in fourth place, something Heather Garriock and her team will be aware of.

A tight defence has been key for Uni and shutting down the Rams’ attacking threats could very well result in another three points.

Marconi Stallions V North Shore Mariners

The Marconi Stallions will entertain the North Shore Mariners on Sunday at Marconi Stadium in a must win match for both teams.

After a shaky start to the season and taking some time to adapt to the top tier, the Stallions have shown their credentials winning three on the bounce.

Last week’s performance was fantastic and with Helen Petinos scoring her first goal of the season, she may be just striding into her old dangerous form.

Heidi Makrillos is another the Mariners will need to watch, the striker has been finding the back of the net with ease and has scored half her team’s goals this season.

Spencer Prior on the other side will be demanding a serious reaction from his team after some poor results of late.

They’ve now lost three matches in a row after being undefeated for the first five rounds of the competition.

Players like Tiffany Patterson and Kate Hensman will need to step up with the team only scoring one goal in their last three outings.

Manly United V Football NSW Institute

Cromer Park will be Sunday’s venue for the clash between Manly United and the Football NSW Institute.

Manly registered only their second win of the season last week but some win it was against the Mariners.

The result has given them some hope of still challenging for fourth place on the ladder and three points is a must for them this week.

The Institute hasn’t had trouble scoring goals so far this season but instead have struggles to keep them out, conceding 29 goals so far.

They won’t give up though and with Princess Ibini-Isei leading their forays forward, they will always be a dangerous side to contain.

-By Nikola Pozder