A two-horse race for the title had Northern Rangers and Ulverstone neck-and-neck having both begun their campaigns with nine straight wins.

However, Ulverstone's 6-3 defeat at Riverside in round 10 has given Rangers the edge before the teams meet for the first time next week.

Just as exciting is the race for the league's golden boot with the prolific Meg Connolly's four goals against Ulverstone taking her tally to 22.

A forfeit by Somerset last week deprived Connolly of the chance to add to her total while she also played centre-back at Ulverstone a month ago.

Febey Chugg is pivotal to both contests, captaining the ladder-leading Rangers side while sitting three goals behind Connolly following a hat-trick in Saturday's 6-1 win at Launceston City.

In her fifth year at the NTCA Ground, Chugg is relishing both challenges and eagerly anticipating Rangers' round 13 visit to Ulverstone.

"The game was moved earlier in the season which is why we haven't played them yet but we're really looking forward to it," she said.

"We're a young team but people are learning a lot and it's good to see skills improving.

"It's a bit of a numbers struggle. We have less players than we've had in the past so everyone that's here gives 100 per cent and just has to get on with it so that kind of helps and we know we all have to turn up each week."

The recent Northern dominance of the league saw Rangers win in 2017 and '18, finish runners-up to Riverside in 2019 and third when Launceston United went through undefeated last season - a feat their cross-town rivals could repeat this year.

Chugg, who started out at Launceston City, played juniors with North Launceston Eagles and also had a spell playing college soccer in the US, said new coach Stephen Pearce has played a huge part in the club's successful campaign.

"It's his first year coaching us, he was previously an assistant with the under-18s," she said. "He's young and he's got a lot of good advice to bring to women's football.

"He spends a lot of time at the club and is working on how to bridge the gap between the senior girls and juniors because at the moment there is nothing between the 16s and seniors. I hope he will be with us for a long time."

As for the golden boot, Chugg is joined by her sister-in-law Abigail and Mo Chamberlin in contributing 45 of Rangers' 54 goals between them.

But the captain would like to see that shared around more.

"We want more players up there. Last week (in a 9-0 win over Somerset) we had six goalscorers including Georgina Perkins, our keeper, which is better than having just one or two players scoring all the goals. We want to get more of us up there."

Before stepping up to the Women's Super League, Devonport's Renske Rumbouts won last season's golden boot with 21 goals while in 2019 Connolly and Chamberlin finished level on 32 each.