Home sweet home yields win but concerns for Gungahlin

It was a triumphant return for United women to their home ground Gungahlin Enclosed Oval, playing their first game of the NPL first grade season there.

A five-week lockout forced multiple teams to relocate matches after summer rain and pre-season matches negatively impacted the turf.

It appears the ground will still struggle despite its reopening, with quality of the pitch deemed sub-par by United.

"It is a little bit frustrating, especially when women are susceptible to knee injuries, six times more than men as well. But it is what it is," Gungahlin coach Nick Van Aalst said.

"Our president and one of our operations managers are in contact with ACT sportsgrounds and people that are involved in maintaining fields to try and get it to a standard that's a little bit more suitable for NPL.

"But it's not an easy fix, because it's hard to manage a field once it gets to the state and it's not going to grow back a lot in winter either.

"It's not just us going through it, every club doesn't have access to enough grounds at the moment with how quickly the sport is growing."

Gungahlin remains in a tight battle for the top four on the NPL table with Olympic, Canberra Croatia and Belconnen United, but the win puts it in a good position to improve on its finals exit last season.

"Losing the Fed Cup final and losing in the first round of finals last year was disappointing so the hope is to push on more than we did last season," the coach said.

"The top four teams are very close and it'll be very competitive right to the end."

Women: Gungahlin United 3 bt Canberra Croatia 2; Canberra Olympic 4 bt ANU 0; Belconnen United 5 bt Tuggeranong United 0.

Men: O'Connor Knights 3 bt Canberra Croatia 1; Gungahlin United 4 bt Yoogali SC 0; Monaro Panthers 3 bt Tigers FC 1; Tuggeranong United 2 bt Canberra Olympic 1.