Sandringham SC’s topsy-turvy season continued as their midfielders led the charge in a resurgent 3-0 win over Ashburton Women’s, with temporary coach Deb Nichols reserving special praise for their impact.
All three goals came from the midfield, with the deep central pair of Annabelle Gibney and Sienna Fogarty both striking in the second half with Elaina Vatcky netting the sealer off the right flank.
Their impact was applauded by the Sandringham coach, who firmly believes the midfield battle was a main tipping point in the clash.
“That’s the key, if your midfielders dominate – especially in women’s football -then you tend to get the result on the day,” Nichols said.
“The midfield worked much harder today, a bit more like they played against Bundy so they dominated the game.
“Sienna Fogarty’s workload today, just her doing the grunt work and Gibbo [Annabelle Gibney] backing her up really made that difference.
“They you have the flankers Nic [Prins] and Elaina [Vatcky] working really hard on the wings.”
Nichols was also happy to see a good team performance, one that saw the hosts control the large majority of the play through the centre.
“I thought we dominated the game, dominated possession – I’d say about 80%. It was just a matter of actually scoring,” she said.
“Most of the chances in the first half were with the wind then Sienna got the header 15 minutes into the second half and then the pressure came off a little bit [allowing us] to control the game from there on.”
The win sees Sandringham move into seventh place on the WPL ladder, with four points and goal difference splitting them and a finals berth.
With the return of first-choice defender Steph Parton, Sandy are primed for a late run at finals.
“[Parton’s] had a couple of runs in the reserves just because she’s had three weeks off,” the head coach said after her return bow.
“She was away so she’s just getting back to match fitness now so it’s good because it gives us another option, another senior player back. We’ve got a good 14-15 squad and we’re going to need it now with the run in.”
With a short turnaround and a game against Casey on Friday to look forward to, Nichols is hoping her side rid themselves of the rollercoaster tag and string some wins together.
“A bit up and down [has been our season], we need to string some results together,” she said.
“We’ve got Casey this Friday, so a short turn around. That’s going to be a hard game as they’re going well at the moment.
“Then we’ve got Cairnlea, so we probably really need to win both games to keep the pressure on those teams in fourth and fifth.”
In terms of catching those sides above them, the coach admitted it’s more about focusing on what her girls do, rather that waiting on the other teams to get favourable results.
“I suppose we’ve got to think realistic. We just keep picking up points and we really can’t look at relying on other people’s results.
“We just have to keep winning. If we win then we can see how were going but if we push into fifth, that’s our aim at the moment and anything above that is a bonus.”