Advantage Lynn-Avon In Premier Women’s Title Race by Jeremy Ruane Lynn-Avon United remain on course for their third consecutive Northern Premier Women’s League championship on August 4, after edging out arch-rivals Ellerslie 3-2 in yet another skill-laden thriller between these evenly matched teams, this time at Michaels Avenue. Those folk who arrived five minutes late for the start of the final chapter in this trilogy of titanic tussles can now discover what they missed out on, for both teams had netted inside the first four minutes of the match! Lynn-Avon got away to an absolute flyer, taking the lead inside the first thirty-eight seconds. Storming downfield from the kick-off, an early foul presented Dana Heiford with the opportunity to hoist in a free-kick from the right. The ball arced over the head of Sue Taylor, and while Dana Humby and Kristy Hill looked on, Amanda Crawford stole in and guided a looping header over Stephanie Puckrin and under the crossbar to give the defending champions a dream start in a match crucial to the championship ambitions of both teams. United were still celebrating when league leaders Ellerslie struck back in fine fashion. Lily Somerfield played the ball forward to Michele Keinzley, who fed the ball wide to Pip Meo on the left. Her through ball rewarded Melanie Gooch’s diagonal off-the-ball run behind Keinzley, and the striker drew Yvonne Vale out of her goal before slipping the ball wide of the goalkeeper and just inside her left-hand post - 1-1, with just three minutes and forty seconds having been played ... get your seat-belts on, folks, we’re in for another roller-coaster ride!! And so it proved, irritating rainfall notwithstanding. Both teams attacked with gusto, but it was Lynn-Avon who were getting shots in on goal over the next fifteen minutes. Sara Clapham sent one whistling narrowly over the top in the ninth minute, after a concerted build-up featuring Rachel Doody and Heiford. Five minutes later, Doody was involved again, beating Somerfield on the right before presenting a shooting chance for Hayley Moorwood. Puckrin knew very little about her thunderous dipping thirty yard drive, and was greatly relieved to see the ball crash against the crossbar and career out of play. Ellerslie’s goalkeeper then smothered a long-range effort from Amber Hearn, before the home team mounted an attacking raid which resulted in a shot on goal. Meo motored past Doody on the left before drilling in a cross for Rebecca Sowden, who, with Priscilla Duncan, was playing her last game for Ellerslie before heading off to fulfil scholarship commitments in the USA. Sowden squared the ball to Vicki Rainbow, who let fly with a rasping twenty yard drive which had Vale scrambling across her goal in vain in the twentieth minute. Fortunately for the goalkeeper, the ball sizzled narrowly over the crossbar. Back came Lynn-Avon, McCahill clearing an Ellerslie attack with a raking ball forward which picked out Clapham. She instantly unleashed a superb defence-splitting pass which sent Crawford scampering clear of the defence. The co-leader on the league’s goalscoring charts fired her shot beyond the advancing Puckrin but past the left-hand post in the 23rd minute. The resulting goal-kick offered a suggestion that all was not well with Puckrin, whose shriek suggested the foot injury she picked up in the week hadn’t resolved itself. The goalkeeper had more than just her injury to worry about seconds later, for Hearn had robbed Somerfield and sent Clapham careering through on goal. To Puckrin’s relief, she, too, shot across the face of the target. Just on the half-hour mark, Lynn-Avon edged ahead once more. Moorwood and Doody teamed up on the right flank, with the latter’s cross picking out Clapham. Her header zoomed beyond the diving figure of Puckrin and into the bottom left-hand corner of the net - 2-1 to the defending champions. Could lightning strike twice, in the form of another quick equaliser from Ellerslie? The league leaders wasted little time in finding out. Three minutes after the goal, Sowden delivered a free-kick to the far post, where Taylor arrived bang on cue to direct a downward header towards the target. Vale gratefully grabbed the ball at the second attempt. Five minutes later, Ellerslie were looking daggers at referee Graham Whitford, whose opting to play advantage when there didn’t appear to be one left the home team feeling decidedly aggrieved. Keinzley and Somerfield had teamed up on the left, the latter playing the ball through to Gooch, who evaded two challenges before being caught by Melita Harrison inside the penalty area. Had she gone down, referee Whitford would have had no option - penalty. But Gooch looked to continue on, ultimately to no avail, and Ellerslie were left to wonder how that was to their advantage. After Doody had shot straight at Puckrin in the 41st minute - a chip would have left the goalkeeper in no man’s land, and rewarded another quick-fire Lynn-Avon raid in the desired fashion, Ellerslie came storming back, intent on levelling matters before half-time. That they didn’t was due to Vale. Duncan, Keinzley and Sowden linked up to release Gooch through United’s defence. After evading three challenges, challenge number four proved one too many for the striker - Vale dived to save at her feet to bring the first half to a close with Lynn-Avon 2-1 to the good. Margot Bowker took over in goal from Puckrin at half-time, but before she even touched the ball, her opposite number was fishing it out of the net for the second time in the match, just twenty-seven seconds after the resumption. There was an element of controversy about Ellerslie’s equaliser, however, the ball clearly striking Somerfield’s hand as it ricocheted onto her off an opponent. As United protested en masse for hand-ball, referee Whitford ruled the ball had struck the hand, so play on. Somerfield had already done so, cutting inside before slipping a slide-rule pass through Lynn-Avon’s defence. Gooch was quickest to react, and held off the challenge of Harrison before slotting the ball past Vale and into the net - 2-2. Lynn-Avon were still in dreamland three minutes later, as Ellerslie scythed through their ranks once more. But for the alertness of McCahill - a rock-solid performance, Gooch would have had her hat-trick, on receipt of a pass from Ellerslie’s finest performer on the day, Sowden, who, soon after, let fly from thirty yards with an effort which deflected off Heiford and narrowly over the crossbar. Ellerslie were pounding away at Lynn-Avon’s defences, but McCahill’s experience, particularly in terms of her reading of the game, was all too often their nemesis. And it was just such an intervention by the visiting captain which turned the game United’s way once more, in the 64th minute. An interception by McCahill was picked up by Hearn some thirty yards from her own goal, and she turned and set off upfield, Ellerslie finding themselves decidedly short on numbers to allay this particular counter-attack. On and on Hearn surged, largely unchallenged, until she got to some thirty yards away from Ellerslie’s goal, at which point she unleashed a snorter. Bowker stood nary a prayer as the ball screamed into her top left-hand corner - Lynn-Avon in front once more, 3-2 this time. An elegant chip from Moorwood, four minutes later, forced Bowker to tip the ball over the crossbar, as Ellerslie struggled to regroup following this latest setback to their championship hopes, but true to form, they came surging back in the seventieth minute, led by Gooch. After turning Melissa Ray, she slipped Keinzley through United’s defence, leaving her with just Vale to beat. The goalkeeper committed herself late to the challenge, but not soon enough for Keinzley, who shot straight at her. The striker gathered the rebound, and crossed for Gooch, but Vale recovered to block the resulting shot with her legs, then smothered the rebound - an outstanding piece of goalkeeping. Eleven minutes from time, Gooch slipped Keinzley through again. This time, McCahill was on hand to assist Vale in cleaning up, but she nearly blundered horribly in doing so - Vale had to parry the ball away as her team-mate’s attempted clearance headed for the back of the net. As Keinzley looked on, McCahill reacted quickly to clear the rebound, no doubt with some relief. Back came United, Clapham attempting to replicate Hearn’s feats of twenty minutes previously. The striker set sail from half-way after completely fooling Dana Humby with a superb dummy. Clapham drew her marker forward, then allowed Kirsty Yallop’s pass to run through into the space behind both players, before turning sharply and leaving Humby stranded. After evading two more challenges, Clapham let fly from twenty yards, only to shoot straight at Bowker, who immediately launched the ball upfield - Ellerslie had to win, remember, to maintain their hopes of winning the league for the first time in the club’s history. They had to equalise first, however, and time was running out. With five minutes remaining, what proved to be their last chance came to pass, Sowden and Somerfield combining to release Kim Rowney down the right. Her cross to the far post picked out Gooch, and her volley crept agonisingly across the face of goal and just past the post. Five minutes later, the final whistle sounded to conclude another hugely memorable encounter between these well-matched combatants, leaving Lynn-Avon to celebrate a 3-2 victory, but nothing more - they now need three wins from their last four games to clinch a third consecutive championship, while Ellerslie have to win their last two matches and hope that their arch-rivals slip up, if they are to savour some silverware in 2002. Ellerslie:          Puckrin (Bowker, 46); Humby, Taylor, Hill; Duncan (Rowney, 54), Rainbow, Sowden, Somerfield; Gooch, Keinzley, Meo Lynn-Avon:     Vale; Ray, McCahill, Harrison; Doody, Hearn, Heiford, Moorwood, Yallop; Crawford, Clapham Referee:           Graham Whitford