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18/05/08
Lynn-Avon Hand Suburbs Six-Goal Hiding
by Jeremy Ruane
Lynn-Avon United produced the best display of football seen so far this season during the first half of their Lotto Northern Premier Women's League clash with Eastern Suburbs, which laid the foundations for their 6-0 victory at Ken Maunder Park on May 18 and saw them bolster their goal difference advantage at the top of the table.
Four of the goals came during a forty-five minute spell in which Eastern Suburbs were as passionless as Lynn-Avon were precise. The visitors' display was decidedly disappointing in the first half, and was only rescued from plumbing depths rarely seen by NZ U-17 international Yumi Nguyen.
She almost single-handedly dragged her team-mates out of the mire and led them by example throughout a second half during which Suburbs at least did credit to the shirt, something which can't be said of their first half effort.
Au contraire Lynn-Avon, who, given the time and space in which to practice their party pieces, duly obliged. From the first whistle, the home team ripped into a Suburbs side sorely missing the injured Football Ferns trio of Marlies Oostdam, Rebecca Tegg and Stephanie Puckrin, and came close to opening the scoring just 21 seconds into the match.
Ginny Tan was at her bravest to thwart a rampaging Amber Hearn as she swashbuckled through Suburbs' shell-shocked rearguard, with the tracking run of Nguyen rewarded by her completion of the clearance.
United's pressure continued seconds later, a Kirsty Yallop corner picking out Sam Selwyn on the far post. She hooked it back for Hayley Moorwood to let fly, only for her twenty-yard effort to suffer the same fate as Emma Kete's subsequent attempt - both were blocked.
The latter's effort was ultimately cleared for another corner, which Yallop this time clipped to the near post. Powering through the pack was Hearn, whose near post header gave Tan no chance - 1-0 Lynn-Avon.
This spurred the home team on, and they were simply relentless over the next few minutes, to the extent that Suburbs barely crossed the half-way line. Yallop smashed a twenty-five yarder against the crossbar in the seventh minute, with Moorwood unable to direct the rebound on target.
Yallop then unleashed a twenty-yarder straight at Tan, before a sky-scraping tenth minute cross from Jenny Carlisle saw Kete beat Tan in an aerial duel for the bouncing ball, only for Sarah Fuller to clear off the line.
Two minutes later, Yallop was in again, this time on receipt of a Katie Hoyle pass. United's captain for the day chipped another twenty yard effort narrowly past the far post, four minutes before unleashing another shot from the same distance which Tan smothered well.
In between times, Melissa Ray picked out Moorwood, who surged forward before slipping Hoyle in on the left. Her measured cross to the far post found Hearn hovering dangerously, but she was unable to direct her glancing header on target.
Sarah Gregorius sent Kete careering down the right in the eighteenth minute in pursuit of a delicious pass. The striker powered into the penalty area before pulling the ball back behind the marauding figure of Moorwood. Hoyle was backing up, but saw Fuller clear her shot to safety - the young fullback can be proud of her efforts in a well-beaten team.
Lynn-Avon produced a sumptuous move in the nineteenth minute which deserved better fate, make no mistake! Dana Humby, Sam Selwyn, Kete, Hoyle, Yallop, Carlisle and Hearn were all involved, the last-mentioned mistiming the volley which would have crowned this attack in the manner it merited.
Instead, after Kete had sent a shot zooming across the face of goal, Hearn obliged with her second strike of the game, in the 21st minute. Urged on by Ray, Kete careered down the right before picking out Hearn with a near post cross which allowed the striker to direct her downward header wide of Tan - 2-0.
Eight minutes later came goal number three. Gregorius played the ball to Moorwood, whose first-time pass played Kete in. She burst through one challenge, then enjoyed the bounce of the ball as Tan's attempt to foil the striker ricocheted off her and behind the prone `keeper. Kete kept on running, and rolled the ball home into an empty net.
Just after the half-hour mark, Yallop's switch of play sent Gregorius gallivanting down the right at pace, from where she delivered a high cross in search of the head of Hearn.
The striker's headed hat-trick was denied her on this occasion, however, Tan grabbing the ball cleanly, then smothering a twenty-yarder from Moorwood which was decidedly more accurate than her previous attempt to improve her goals to games return.
The corner flag was within a yard of being hit by a player whose facial expression, as she looked to the heavens after this wildly mistimed attempt, combined horror, frustration and undisguised disgust!
But she kept plugging away, and in the 37th minute, contributed a gorgeous chipped cross to the far post
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 Amber Hearn
 Emma Kete
 Sarah Gregorius
 Yumi Nguyen
 Katie Hoyle
 Hayley Moorwood
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which found Hoyle and Yallop homing in with the goal at their mercy. The latter squandered a glorious opportunity, one which the former was better placed to convert.
Hoyle's reward was to come, however, a minute before the end of a very one-sided first half. Kete - at her battling best in this match - outmuscled two opponents in the centre circle and instantly sent her midfield colleague racing in off the left flank. With just Tan to beat, Hoyle did so with aplomb, a cool finish which gave United a 4-0 half-time lead.
Within eighty seconds of the resumption, they looked to build on it. Hearn, Gregorius and Moorwood combined on the right, with the last-mentioned floating the ball over the defence for Kete to race onto, Tan alone to beat. The `keeper prevailed, palming the striker's shot to safety.
It was still all Lynn-Avon, but their accuracy and precision in the first twenty-odd minutes of the second half paled in comparison to their efforts in the first spell. Hearn sent a thundering header wide from a Yallop corner, while Tan denied the striker on the hour mark, after Moorwood, Gregorius and Kete had combined on the right.
Yallop's fizzing free-kick found Tan's grateful gloves twenty minutes from time, the signal for Lynn-Avon to raise their intensity levels once more. Within two minutes, Vicki Rainbow had sparked a raid which culminated in Moorwood seeing another shot blocked.
Seventeen minutes from time, Suburbs launched their first raid of consequence in a match they had barely contributed to from an attacking perspective. Nguyen, fittingly, was the player who sparked it, combining with Stacey Fraser to send the hard-working but oft-unrewarded Melanie Gooch racing through, Selwyn in hot pursuit.
The hitherto spectator-like figure of Ashleigh Cox was swift to react, racing off her line to save at the feet of the striker, who rarely got a sniff of the ball throughout proceedings because United were doing such a good job in cutting off her sources of supply.
At the other end of the park, “la grand dame” of Auckland women's football even came close to getting in on the act, in what is her 21st season playing in the country's strongest women's league competition.
It should come as no surprise to learn that Lynn-Avon want Terry McCahill to bow out clutching trophies and winners' medals galore, and a goal or two from her en route would be a welcome bonus. A short corner routine twixt Yallop and Hoyle presented the stalwart with a headed chance in the 76th minute, but this attempt flashed past the near post.
Yallop then unleashed a shot past the post before Moorwood came desperately close to scoring, eleven minutes from time. Neatly controlling the ball, she let fly with a rasping volley which Tan all but carried into the net with her.
At the last second, she parried it back into play, with the incoming Kete unable to capitalise, a feat she repeated seconds later. This time, McCahill picked out Moorwood, whose first-time through ball sent Gregorius racing in behind the defence. Her driven cross only needed a touch, but Kete was a stride behind it, and was unable to deliver.
Six minutes from time, Rachel Doody and Hoyle - a great turn foiled Mariah Meagher - combined on the right, with Gregorius the recipient of the cross. Fuller cleared this effort off the line, with Kete again unable to capitalise as Hoyle fired over another cross on receipt of the fullback's clearance.
Lynn-Avon's pressure finally paid off three minutes from time, Suburbs' doughty defensive display in the second half finally unhinged by Moorwood's vision.
Boxed in in front of the dugouts, the midfielder swept a crossfield ball to the opposite flank, where Doody, Hoyle and Kete had yards of space in which to operate, and not a “Lilywhite” in sight! Gregorius was the ultimate beneficiary, and coolly slotted home.
Two minutes later, Hoyle and Gregorius combined to send Kete streaking through Suburbs' back-line, the advancing Tan only to beat. The striker swept past her, but was forced wide in doing so, and was unable to steer the ball home into an empty net from the acute angle on which she found herself.
With stoppage time looming large, Moorwood finally found her range, and lashed home a twenty-five yarder which left Tan beaten all ends up, and answered a certain scribe's mild rebuke of her goalscoring prowess a week ago in the best manner possible - via on-field deeds.
For good measure, she came within a foot of potting a second long-range effort in stoppage time, but Eastern Suburbs were a well-beaten side long before this late flurry from their conquerors, Lynn-Avon's 6-0 win bolstering their goal difference advantage atop the table.
Lynn-Avon: Cox; Carlisle (Doody, 62)), Ray (McCahill, 62), Humby, Selwyn; Gregorius, Moorwood, Yallop, Hoyle; Hearn (Rainbow, 69), Kete
Suburbs: Tan; Fuller, Nelson, Hui, Meagher; Hardy (Fraser, 46), Rombouts, Nguyen, Doubleday; McLeod, Gooch
Referee: Liam Lawrence
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