A commanding display of goalkeeping by New Zealand international Jenny Bindon secured a third successive scoreless draw for North Harbour in the Lion Foundation National Women's League on October 29, but the result proved suffice for Capital Soccer to retain their grip on the NZ Women's Soccer Challenge Cup, in their first defence of the season at Centennial Park, Miramar. The home team, like Auckland a week ago against the same opponents, enjoyed a wealth of possession, but while they were able to go round, through and over Harbour's defences with great regularity, a combination of profligate finishing and the dominant presence of Bindon ensured the locals would play out their second drawn match in six days. Against their more defensively minded opponents, Capital were swiftly in the ascendancy, with Angela Goodridge twice shooting over in the first eight minutes, following the respective penetrative runs of Toni Horne and Annalies Van Kampen down the left. Two minutes later, Bindon's first intervention of note for the day came to pass, as she plucked an Ashlee Delahunty shot from the sky after the striker got the better of Rebecca Simpson on the edge of Harbour's penalty area. A far less routine save was forced on Bindon three minutes later. Patrice Bourke whipped a corner into the goalmouth, where Rebecca O'Neill rose unchallenged to power a downward header goalwards. The goalkeeper instinctively stuck out a leg to block the effort, and was on her feet in an instant to paw the ball to safety, her initial denial having sent the sphere skywards. Buoyed by this, the Harbourites continued to stand firm, Fran Ebbett racing back to thwart Delahunty in the sixteenth minute, after a neat turn and crossfield ball by Zarnia Cogle had seen the youngster sent scampering into the penalty area following an interchange between O'Neill and Van Kampen. Anna Barlow was next in the firing line, athletically foiling a raid featuring Liz Oliver and Delahunty. Cogle swiftly pounced on the loose ball, only to send her twenty-five yard snapshot sailing narrowly over the crossbar, a fate which befell a fair few other efforts Capital made to break the deadlock in this match, some of which were of the high, wide and not so very handsome variety! Just shy of the half-hour mark, Capital came close to breaking the deadlock, despite a clear foul inflicted on Simpson by Goodridge, the striker's eagerness to find a way past the ball-shielding defender getting the better of her. Referee Leigh Perry ignored the infringement, and looked on as Bindon blocked bravely at the lunging striker's feet seconds later. Goodridge managed to get a shot in just as Bindon approached, the ball ricocheting off both the goalkeeper and the retreating figure of Simpson before heading towards the target, where Michele Hogg required two attempts to clear it off the line for a corner. After Bindon had received treatment - Goodridge had collided with the `keeper during their close quarters encounter, Cogle fired the corner to the far post, where O'Neill saw her initial effort blocked on the line by Simpson. The New Zealand international hooked the rebound goalwards, but Bindon grabbed the ball before any further danger could arise. The `keeper cleared the sphere downfield, picking out Capital's lanky defender, Toni West. She controlled the ball, dribbled forward then released it, only to unleash an eye-of-the-needle pass when far more straightforward options were available to her. Anne-Marie Scott said thanks very much, the Harbour defender gleefully intercepting West's pass and promptly picking out Caitlin Campbell, who turned and ran at the retreating Capital rearguard. Three opponents later, the youngster threaded the ball through for Natalie Donze, who thrashed the ball wide of the mark - Harbour's first attacking foray of note in the match had taken 31 minutes to materialise! After Van Kampen had fired a shot across the face of goal, a poor first touch by Nadine Hayle four minutes before the break was pounced on by Cogle, who released Delahunty down the right. Her cross zoomed beyond Goodridge to Van Kampen, who was racing in on the far post. She shot across the initially wrong-footed Bindon towards the bottom far corner of the net, but the `keeper's cat-like reactions saw her launch herself to her left to turn the ball away to safety - a top stop. Campbell's thirty-yard effort, which narrowly cleared the crossbar, was the last shot of note in the first half, but normal service - Capital pressure - resumed early in the second spell, with Cogle featuring heavily. Her first cross, after evading two challenges, was scrambled clear, while the second, after linking neatly with Goodridge, saw her pick out O'Neill, whose shot on the turn fizzed narrowly past the far post.

Zarnia Cogle Anna Barlow Toni West Natalie Donze Patrice Bourke and Cath Porteous Jenny Bindon

Donze has made a good fist of getting her career back on track after a severe knee injury saw her miss the bulk of the last eighteen months. So you couldn't help but feel for the teenager when she went down while challenging Van Kampen and didn't get up again, her ankle having given way beneath her while attempting to change direction. The match was held up while an ambulance made its way to the ground, and the Harbour youngster was initially diagnosed with a badly dislocated ankle before being taken away for an unscheduled overnight stay in Wellington, plans to attend her mother's fiftieth birthday party no longer a priority. Sadly, the enforced break in play impacted upon the momentum of the game for a time, with Barlow's heading clear a Cogle cross intended for Delahunty the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock in the twenty minutes which followed. Capital were finding the rejigged Harbour rearguard something of a challenge, with Bindon marshalling her defenders in fine fashion, which ultimately ensured that the bulk of the home team's attempts to find a way through ran through to the goalkeeper. With players of the creative potential of Barlow and Campbell on deck, Capital could ill afford to ignore the counter-attacking threat which the visitors pose, and three times before the finish they were nearly caught out. Which would have been a mite embarrassing, given the Challenge Cup - this being Capital's first defence of the trophy they claimed from Auckland in last year's Grand Final - wasn't even on site, and had seemingly been forgotten about by numerous parties, with no mention of it having been made in the match programme, nor the national body's media release previewing the weekend's action. Thus when Barlow and Cath Porteous combined to send Ebbett - what was she doing beyond the half-way line? - steaming through, the alarm bells were ringing. Fortunately for Capital, Ebbett's lob of the advancing Aroon Clansey drifted wide. After O'Neill had lashed a shot across the face of goal at the other end of the park, a rare wayward clearance by Bria Sargent was pounced on by Hayle, who sent Campbell racing through in the 84th minute. Toni Horne stepped in to foil the fourteen-year-old, but could only clear to Barlow, whose instinctive volley cleared the crossbar. Back came Capital, Cogle leading the charge once more, although the former Cantabrian would have better served the team by deferring to the better-positioned Bourke on a couple of occasions in the second half, as Capital pursued the goal they were now desperately seeking. After firing a twenty-five yarder just over the bar, Cogle whipped in an 88th minute cross which cannoned off Hogg in the heart of the Harbour goalmouth. Simpson reacted quickly to clear the danger, but only as far as Bourke, whose low driven effort deflected inches past the far post. The visitors rode their luck in the remaining minutes, with numerous injury breaks in the second half seeing ten minutes of injury time being played. During this, Harbour had their chance to clinch victory, with Hayle releasing Campbell down the left. The young striker, who had found herself the meat in a Capital sandwich minutes earlier, raced past Sargent before pinging a beauty on the angle from fully thirty yards - very similar, in fact, to her crossbar-rattling effort against Auckland a week ago. The difference was this one was on target, and but for a quite splendid save by Clansey, who was at full stretch as she launched herself to her left, the title-holders would have lost their grip on the Challenge Cup in their first defence. But with time all but up on the clock, Capital were gifted a glorious chance to clinch the three points they so desperately sought, when Scott inexplicably gifted possession to substitute Liz Milne on the edge of her penalty area. The local youngster raced into the eighteen-yard box and found herself one-on-one with Bindon. The goalkeeper cut down the angles superbly, and for her efforts throughout this match, deserved to produce the save with her legs which ensured her team of a hard-earned point from yet another scoreless draw, this time against the reigning National Women's League champions, a result which neither team could really afford in their respective play-off quests, although less so in Capital's case. Capital:     Clansey; Oliver, West, Sargent, Horne; Cogle, O'Neill, Bourke, Van Kampen (Pearson, 90); Goodridge, Delahunty (Milne, 78) Harbour:     Bindon; Scott, Ebbett, Simpson, Hogg; Campbell, Marcellino, Porteous, Barlow, Donze (Nelson, 53); Hayle Referee:     Leigh Perry