Matilda matchup as Mariners look to confirm Finals spot against Canberra

Central Coast Mariners Women are back at Our Paradise for their penultimate home fixture of the Liberty A-League season, this Sunday (3pm kick-off).

Emily Husband’s team are in fine form, coming into this game off the back of a 2-0 success in Brisbane last weekend and have won their last three matches, their best run of the season so far which has given them the opportunity to mathematically confirm a Finals spot this weekend.

Husband’s team are also still in with an outside chance of securing the Premiership, sitting four points off current leaders Western United, although it’s Sydney FC who are in the driving seat as a win in their game in hand would see them go top.

Liberty A-League Ladder

In the Mariners’ way this weekend is Canberra United, who currently sit bottom of the Liberty A-League and were beaten 3-0 in the Capital Territory when the two sides met in December.

Wurigumula was the star of the show, opening the scoring with a stunning long-range strike, before netting her brace in the second half. Peta Trimis rounded off the scoring with her first senior goal.

📝 Squad list

Husband has been able to name an unchanged squad list from last weekend’s win over Brisbane, as the squad looks to keep up recent momentum.

👀 Players to Watch

Kyah Simon has made just the impact Husband will have been hoping for after returning from her lengthy injury lay-off, in three starts Simon has netted two goals, including our second goal last weekend in Brisbane.

Her form saw her nominated for February’s Liberty A-League Player of the Month, vote for her here.

For Sunday’s visitors, goalscoring is not an issue despite sitting bottom of the league. Canberra are the fourth highest scorers in the league and have two of the four top scorers in the division in Michelle Heyman (14) and Vesna Milivojevic (9).

Heyman’s form this season earned her a recall to the Matildas squad where she scored five across two games in the latest international break, whilst Milivojevic already has 14 senior caps for Serbia at the age of 22.

Milivojevic was the standout in our previous meeting with Canberra, with her movement across the forward line and eye for goal from long-range.