Women’s Super League Round 6 Preview

After a brief hiatus the Women's Super League is back this weekend with an interesting set of fixtures.

The break will have energized most teams, most notably Eastern UNSW Lions whose 4-0 demolition of Northbridge prior to Easter ensured they kept pace with the high-flying APIA Leichardt.

The pick of the fixtures this week is undoubtedly the eagerly-awaited matchup between APIA and Gladesville. While we are less than a third of the way into the season, both sides have put forward their title credentials and remain undefeated thus far.

APIA have probably been the more impressive of the two sides, no doubt thanks to the goals of Aysha Adalis, while Gladesville have gone about their business notching up three wins from three games and generally looking the goods.  They should provide the first real challenge to an as yet unstoppable APIA outfit. If they perform on Sunday we could be in for an absolute cracker at Wilson Park.

Elsewhere, Northbridge take on Northern Tigers in what should be another closely fought encounter.  Both sides have shown potential in patches this year, with Northbridge's commanding win at St George the highlight, although a lack of experience has generally been the reason for their erratic form.

Northbridge were beaten by four goals during the break in a catchup fixture with the high-flying Eastern UNSW Lions. They'll know however that to challenge for finals football they'll have to win fixtures such as this, with Northern Tigers sitting winless near the bottom of the ladder. Both sides will see this as a winnable fixture in what will be a tight contest at Mills Park.

Out west Nepean will be looking to send a message to rest of the competition when they play host to Lady Hawks at Cook Park. Nepean have been very competitive in the first few rounds and probably deserve more than the one win they have recorded.  The thrashing from APIA aside, they have not looked out of place, pushing both Gladesville and Eastern UNSW Lions all the way.

Lady Hawks currently have a mortgage on fourth place and will not be giving it up without a fight. Early signs point to a three-way battle between themselves, Olympic and Nepean for the last finals spot so a positive result here will create a nice buffer with one third of the season played. With APIA to follow in round seven, they'll know three points here is an absolute necessity. This one will go down to the wire.

Heading south St George's season just gets tougher when Eastern UNSW Lions visit St George Stadium.  Still yet to pick up a point, St George will need to turn it around quickly if they have any hopes of making an impact on this years competition. Unlucky over the first few rounds, the Saints have slumped to some disappointing results.  A good performance against a quality Lions side is just the tonic they need to kick start their season.

Standing in their way is perhaps the most impressive team of the first five rounds who will be looking to rack up as many points as they can before crunch games against APIA and Gladesville. After putting away four against Northbridge, don't be surprised if the Lions do it again here.

Springwood welcome Sydney Olympic to Summerhayes Park in the last of the week six fixtures.  Springwood have surprised many with some impressive performances and a great win over Northern Tigers early in the piece.  The long trip west for Olympic may represent a great opportunity for Springwood to pick up their biggest scalp yet.

Olympic are, as mentioned, very much in the running for fourth spot and would be very disappointed not to grab all three points from this fixture. With important games against Nepean and APIA coming up over the next two weeks, nothing less than three points will do.

This early in the season every team still has plenty to play for.  The fixtures dished up for us in round six will tell us a lot about intentions of every side - it should be a cracker!

Source FNSW By Ryan Cropp