The top two teams in the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League further strengthened their respective grips on places in this season's National Women's League on the last weekend in May, with both scoring four goals as they won their respective tenth round fixtures. Leaders West Coast Rangers maintained their perfect start to the campaign with a 4-2 win at Tauranga Moana, who, on the twentieth anniversary of the greatest European Cup Final ever - Liverpool's come-from-behind triumph over AC Milan - must have felt like the Italians roughly halfway through the first half. Just like "The Reds" twenty years ago, Rangers scored three goals in a six-minute burst to take the game away from Tauranga, Minji Yun's double being swiftly supplemented by a Shannon Henson strike as last season's Golden Boot winner maintained her spot atop this season's scoring charts. Ella Golding reduced the arrears soon after, but Henson's second of the game soon after the interval killed off any hopes Tauranga held of a comeback, despite Briana Osborne pulling another goal back eighteen minutes from time. Twenty-four hours previously, Auckland United came from behind to down Ellerslie 4-1 at Keith Hay Park, where Mia Grgicevich stunned the home team with a third minute twenty-five yarder - United goalkeeper Scarlett Gray will not want to see the video of this one too often! The reigning champions got back on level terms eleven minutes later, but should have been playing against ten players for the remainder of the match. That they weren't was down to an obscure ruling by referee Liam Weston, who deemed that Anita Trudgen's intervention to stop a top corner-bound shot from Danielle Canham with her hand was "non-deliberate", thus only merited a caution per the Laws of the Game, even though a penalty was awarded. Needless to say, there was disbelief all round, with both coaches in particular stunned by the outcome. Ellerslie's Ryan Shiffman was fully expecting to see his captain see red for producing a fine save despite not being the goalkeeper! "Ponies" custodian Suhee Kang duly matched Trudgen's heroics twixt the sticks, producing a fine save from the resulting penalty to deny Ava Pritchard, but alas for the 'keeper, the ball rebounded to the striker, who rammed home the equaliser. Auckland duly shifted through the gears, producing some lovely football in patches, and it was from one such move, starring Tui Dugan and Saskia Vosper, that Canham fired them in front from close range eight minutes before half-time. A Zoe Benson double before the hour mark put the game out of the visitors' reach, but United should have won by a greater margin, as they squandered some great chances to increase their lead just hours before discovering their opponents in the first match of the inaugural FIFA Women's Challenge Cup later this year. A trip to China is on the agenda for coach Ben Bate and his charges, with Wuhan Jianju taking out the inaugural Asian Women's Champions League, beating Rebekah Stott's Melbourne City team on

penalties, with "Stotty" being recognised as the league's MVP - no small beer, that! The battle for third and fourth spots is heating up quite nicely, with Eastern Suburbs' clash with Hibiscus Coast on the North Harbour Stadium Tigerturf twice postponed on the weekend, latterly through the intervention of Mother Nature, initially a result of … let's just say there were extremely few folk singing the praises of stadium management on Friday evening!! That opened the door for either Western Springs or Fencibles United to move into third place on the table, "The Hoops" eventually doing so, but not in the manner they had hoped. That's because "Fencies" held them to a 1-1 draw at Seddon Fields, with Mischa Marais capitalising on a defensive blunder in the twelfth minute to give the visitors a goal their first half performance fully merited. Their second half efforts were nowhere near as impactful, Reno Hirano rifling home the equaliser from twenty-five yards in the 52nd minute, after which Springs dominated proceedings, but gained no further rewards for their efforts, meaning they occupy third place with Suburbs and "Fencies" a point abaft them. United dodged a few bullets en route to the final whistle - Rosie Missen was very fortunate to avoid conceding a penalty when tackling Hirano, while the well-performed Anna McPhie rattled the crossbar in the dying seconds - but they finished the game with ten players, Taylah Byers' 88th minute dismissal for two bookable offences earning her a suspension next Friday night. Which just happens to be Fencibles' Delivereasy Kate Sheppard Cup tie against Rangers at Riverhills Park. Byers will be a big miss for the home team in that encounter, one of eight taking place across the weekend in the northern region. Also on Friday, Ellerslie head to Bay City Park to take on East Coast Bays, while on Saturday, "The Hoops" make the trek south-east to Rex Morpeth Park, the home of Whakatane Town, whose progress to this stage of the Cup came about via two default victories. No such luck for them this time round, methinks! Tauranga take on Onehunga Sports at Links Avenue, with Franklin United and Birkenhead United the third tie on Saturday, theirs an all-Championship showdown at the Drury Sports Complex. Just one tie is set down for Sunday, with Championship strugglers Onehunga-Mangere United entertaining Lakes FC at Mangere Domain, while the round concludes on Monday with "The Lilywhites" welcoming Cambridge to Madills Farm on a day Auckland and "The Coasters" square off at Keith Hay Park, where United will take on Suburbs on Friday evening in a rearranged league encounter. Details: Auckland United 4 (A. Pritchard (14), D. Canham (37), Z. Benson (52, 60)), Ellerslie 1 (M. Grgicevich (3))  HT 2-1 Hibiscus Coast v. Eastern Suburbs, postponed Tauranga Moana 2 (E. Golding (34), B. Osborne (72)), West Coast Rangers 4 (M. Yun (22, 26), S. Henson (28, 53))  HT 1-3 Western Springs 1 (R. Hirano (52)), Fencibles United 1 (M. Marais (12))  HT 0-1