The Wild FC will be heading into their final regular season game this week riding on a high, after a decicive 3-1 victory over the Halifax Tides at McMahon Stadium on Oct. 11.
The second last game of the regular season saw the Wild FC maintain a dominant control over the ball for the first 60 minutes of the match, and preventing the Tides from pushing back to even up the score for the remainder.
A pair of goals by Wild FC Captain Meggie Dougherty Howard were complemented by one from Grace Stordy, her first of the 2025 NSL season.
Wild FC Head Coach Lydia Bedford said that it was a gamble to change up the starting roster for the game putting a pair of the youngest players in twins Teagan and Keelyn Stewart, but one that paid off with a pass from Keelyn Stewart to Dougherty Howard.
“I guess the decision also came off the back of having given other players chances and really not feeling like they’re taking it by the scruff of the neck in the same way. So, little bit of a gamble. But she absolutely repaid my faith in the first five minutes when she put that audacious cross through to Meggie,” said Bedford.
“I think she’s got great vision, and if we can keep developing her, and hopefully we can kind of help her with that kind of physical side of the game.”
She said that the only thing that Halifax was able to put over the wild was a two-on-one that ended up giving the Tides their solitary goal.
“I think mentally, we know we can perform like that against Halifax. There’s that little block now around having that level of confidence against other teams that we need to keep pushing. But yeah, really pleasing to see the players step up,” said Bedford.
A one-sided match on Saturday
That pleasure was not shared by Tides Head Coach Steven Hart.
“Let’s get this out the way, we weren’t good. We weren’t good in possession, and we weren’t good out of possession. We were so far apart. They were passing the ball at will, and when we did win the ball, we gave it away. So we just used most of our energy trying to recover the ball,” he said.
“We were marginably better in the second half, but still giving the ball away when we won it. And with all of that, the game could have easily been three.”
Heading into the Oct. 16 match against Vancouver, Bedford said that the matchup between the Wild and the Rise was about as close as it gets in Western Canada to a derby.
“We know they’re pushing for second spot, so it’s our job, if it hasn’t already been determined by the time that game happens, to try and avoid them getting the second spot and make their lives tricky. We obviously want to close the gap between where we are,” she said.
“There’ll always be that little bit of competitiveness, ever since that first game at BC Place that we left thinking, just the penalty in that game and nothing else. So I think the players will definitely be up for it. It seems to be one of the games where I don’t have to say much. They want to turn up and perform. And obviously, last time they came here, we turned the result in our favour.”
