The inaugural ASB Women’s Youth League kicked off at Keith Hay Park on 22 January with a genuine "mate against mate" encounter between Auckland’s Under-20 squad and the province’s Under-20 Development combination. With NZ Football opting to shelve the National Women’s League for three years - the "A Team", Auckland’s senior women’s side, is unlikely to be seen in action again until 2014 - the regionalised youth competition has been introduced to fill the void, and provide representative opportunities for the best of the burgeoning numbers of teenage players with which the women’s game in New Zealand is currently blessed. They are particularly prevalent in the northern region, with Auckland fielding two teams in the Northern Conference, which also comprises Northern Football (formerly North Harbour) and Waikato-Bay of Plenty. The opening day of the new competition saw the Auckland duo locking horns, and after the Development squad offered plenty of cheek by taking a two-goal lead, the "senior" U-20 side rallied to record a hard-earned 3-2 victory. After Aroon Clansey had tipped Hannah Wall’s teasing cross-shot to safety in the third minute, the Development squad responded through Tayla Hetherington, whose deflected twenty yarder earned her team the game’s first corner, in the seventh minute. Tina Kolose whipped the ball into the danger zone, where Hetherington rose between defenders to guide home a six-yard header, perfectly bisecting the defenders covering the uprights, and giving the Development squad a surprise lead in the process. That stung the U-20s into action, with Rosie White twice directing shots over the target inside the next ten minutes, the first set up by Nadia Pearl, while the second was the result of contributions from Rebecca Burrows, Steph Skilton and the overlapping Rachel Head. Both teams were showing signs of ring-rustiness - this was, after all, the first competitive women’s fixture played in New Zealand since last October’s Oceania Women’s Nations Cup tournament - in the rain, something which was particularly evident when it came to gauging the quality of a player’s first touch, all too often sub-standard. Judgement, too, appeared to be fortuitous at times - witness Jess Reddaway’s handling of a 22nd minute situation when she allowed Hetherington’s hopeful long-range effort to bounce over her head, only to turn round and see the ball hit the side-netting by the left-hand upright! Either side of this attempt, Briony Fisher made two timely interceptions to break up promising Development squad raids. The 2008 Young Ferns captain’s display was an eye-catching one, as she came close to making an impact at both ends of the park - her 26th minute twenty-five yarder, for instance, slammed into the side-netting by Clansey’s left-hand post. Buoyed by Fisher’s determination, the U-20s squad picked up their game noticeably around this time, with Pearl and White combining to slip Wall through the heart of the Development squad’s defence. The charismatic flank player was thwarted by the uneven bounce of the pitch on this occasion, but was able to recover the situation and lay the ball off for White before dashing on for the return. White’s cross flew inches over Wall’s head on this occasion, but the latter was in again soon afterwards, only for Clansey to race out and block with her legs in a one-on-one situation, soon after which the goalkeeper grabbed a thirty-yard free-kick from White, who was beginning to find her range. The Development squad responded in the best manner possible - 2-0! Michelle Windsor played the ball down the line for Jessica Snell, who turned Sivitha Boyce before crossing for Hetherington. Reddaway dived out to punch well clear, the ball landing some twenty-five yards out from goal at the feet of Hannah Kraakman. The youngster simply let fly, and was the most surprised player on the park when the ball dipped into the top far corner of the net in the 37th minute. Libby Williams spurned the chance to make it three two minutes later, shooting straight at Reddaway, who looked on with relief in the 41st minute as Hetherington spurned a glorious chance to add to the Development squad’s lead. Boyce got herself in a right tangle - it was far from her most memorable forty-five minutes - and Hetherington swooped on her blunder before cleverly wrong-footing two defenders to engineer the space in which to curl a twenty-yarder round Reddaway. Unfortunately for the striker, the ball crept inches the wrong side of the far post. The U-20s were in a spot of bother, as the 2-0 scoreline suggests, but in between these attempts, came close to halving the deficit. White intercepted a pass and sent Skilton scampering through, only for Clansey to block her shot. White had kept on running in support of her team-mate, and was perfectly placed to pounce on the loose ball and turn it home. But with the goal gaping, she somehow slid her shot past the post. A minute before half-time, the U-20s got back into the match on the scoreboard. Hannah Carlsen and Pearl combined with Head to send Wall - an intelligent off-the-ball run - dashing through the inside left channel. She clipped a delightful cross into the stride of Burrows, who fair battered her volley home off the underside of the bar.

Hannah Carlsen (20s) shadowed by Libby Williams (Dev) Briony Fisher (20s) evades the challenge of Jessica Snell (Dev) Rachel Head (20s) chased by Tayla Hetherington (Dev) Michelle Windsor (Dev) Becky Burrows (20s) Abby Erceg (Dev) Annalie Longo (20s)

Trailing 2-1 at the interval clearly wasn’t in the U-20s’ script, and three half-time substitutions - all five bench-warmers can be used in a match in the new league - saw the introduction of some wise heads in the senior team’s ranks, namely Jessie Verdon, Chelsey Wood and Annalie Longo, who is continuing her recovery from close-season surgery to relieve a long-standing calf problem. Within three minutes, the U-20s were hitting their straps. Claudia Crasborn - a rock-solid defensive display - fed Fisher on the right, and she skipped past two challenges before picking out Skilton with a cross. She laid the ball off to White, who jinked past a defender before bending a shot with the outside of her right foot round Clansey but past the far post as well … a bad miss by the striker’s standards, leaving one to wonder how she would have fared had she opted for an unerring bread-and-butter left-foot drive, hard and low, bottom corner. (It’s every bit as effective as a "Golazo"!) Longo shot over the bar soon after, White having set up her team-mate after the impressive Tessa Berger had headed a Burrows corner to safety. But it was from another Burrows corner, in the 53rd minute, that the U-20s drew level. Again, Berger headed clear, this time to Skilton, lurking some twenty-five yards out from goal. In the testing, rain-slicked conditions, and given the form Clansey was in, a grasscutter was the perfect option, and the striker delivered in spades, her low drive skimming off the surface through a crowded penalty area and beyond the ’keeper’s despairing dive into the net by the far post - 2-2, game on! The U-20s now had their tails up, but with the Development squad showing signs of lost confidence in front of her, Clansey upped her game and pulled off a string of superb saves. Fisher is still wondering how her great mate tipped her blockbusting twenty-five yarder to safety, after Longo and White had weaved their wizardry with a deft one-two, while Wall was the next player to ponder what might have been had Clansey not tipped her twenty-yarder round the post. Clansey then spilt a Burrows corner, right to the feet of Fisher … the defender squealed in frustration as she poked her effort past the upright in the 63rd minute, before contributing to a move which also featured Longo, White and Skilton four minutes later. The last-mentioned’s effort was foiled by Clansey, as was an attempt by Pearl seconds later, the ‘keeper saving on the line with her leg after Fisher had headed a Burrows corner down to the feet of her well-performed captain. In the 74th minute, Longo scampered past two players down the right before working a one-two with Burrows and wrong-footing Abby Erceg, who had enjoyed a decent tussle with White throughout proceedings. The impish substitute set up Skilton, but Windsor blocked her shot for a corner. Jessie Mathews had looked to restore the Development squad’s lead in the 65th minute upon receipt of a pass from Kraakman, but found Reddaway right behind her thirty-yarder. When the midfielder was next involved in a goalmouth incident, it decided the outcome, but to say it was controversial is an understatement! The corner resulting from Windsor’s block was delivered once again by Burrows, this time to the near post by which Mathews was standing. The ball ricocheted off the midfielder onto the upright and into the net, but had Burrows’ delivery crossed the dead-ball line before curling back into play? Referee’s assistant Tom Woo’s signal was confusing, to say the least - another corner was what he was indicating, so the ball must have crossed the line somewhere along the way … Across came referee Martin Neale to briefly consult with his colleague, the upshot of which was the awarding of the goal, much to the ire of the Development squad, Mathews particularly There were no complaints from the U-20s, however - quelle surprise! - and they looked to consolidate their hard-earned advantage in the final ten minutes. Pearl set up Fisher, who thrashed a twenty-yarder past the post, before substitute Martine Puketapu linked with White to set up Longo, who dragged her shot wide of the target. The Development squad threatened an equaliser in the 86th minute when Stephanie Eaton and Kirsten Molloy combined with Erceg, who had moved into a midfield role after the goal. She slipped Hetherington through, but just as the youngster was lining up her shot, Crasborn swooped to snuff out the danger. Two minutes later, Erceg linked with substitute Melissa TeBay, who hurdled Crasborn’s despairing sliding tackle before playing in Eaton. Her deft chip arced over Reddaway but cleared the crossbar by a matter of inches. It was the Development squad’s last chance, for in stoppage time, Burrows fired in yet another corner. Yet again, Berger headed clear, this time to Longo, whose shot suffered the same fate as the bulk of those fired by her team-mates in this match - saved by Clansey, the game’s outstanding individual performer, the final scoreline notwithstanding. Auckland U-20s:     Reddaway; Fisher, Crasborn, Boyce (Wood, 46), Head (Verdon, 46); Carlsen (Longo, 46), Pearl, Burrows; Wall (Puketapu, 80), White, Skilton Auck. Development:     Clansey; Windsor, Berger, Erceg, Molloy; Mathews, Williams, Kolose (Khanthee, 80), Kraakman (TeBay, 82); Snell (Eaton, 72), Hetherington Referee:          Martin Neale