SWANZ Cup 2005

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SWANZ Cup 2005

Lynn-Avon Clinch The Cup Once More

by Jeremy Ruane

Lynn-Avon United clinched their record fourth consecutive Uncle Toby’s Women’s Knockout Cup Final - their sixth all told - at Olympic Park on September 3, but Eastern Suburbs deserved more from a match which saw them downed 2-0 by opponents who completed an unbeaten season with this result.

The cup holders enjoyed the wind at their backs in the first spell, and a thunderous twenty-five yard angled volley from Jen Carlisle, which crashed against the crossbar just five minutes into the match, set the early tone.

Suburbs, however, responded swiftly, with by far their most impressive performer, Marlies Oostdam, pouncing on a blunder by birthday girl Vicki Rainbow to engineer a seventh minute opening for Stacey Fraser. But Lynn-Avon’s former Suburbs defender, Melanie Hansen, got across in cover to block the shot.

That was a rare first half raid for the debutant finalists, however, as there was only team in the match in an attacking sense over the course of the next fifteen minutes. After Ria Percival and Rebecca Parkinson had engineered an opening which Michele Keinzley fired wide at the second attempt, Lynn-Avon were denied what looked a sure-fire penalty by referee Kay Smith in the tenth minute.

Terry McCahill, who turned 35 during the week, played the ball forward for Percival to pursue. As she took it into the penalty area and poked her shot past the advancing Ginny Tan, Suburbs’ goalkeeper, in her desperation to retrieve the situation for her side, clattered into the lively youngster, who hit the deck hard.

Tarena O’Neill raced back to clear off the line, which was just as well, as referee Smith signalled a corner, much to the disbelief of the United contingent among the 600-odd present, all of whom were relieved to see the talented teenager eventually get to her feet and continue, Percival returning to the fray after Parkinson’s corner had been headed across the face of goal by McCahill.

After Keinzley and Carlisle both shot at Tan on receipt of passes from Kirsty Yallop, Lynn-Avon opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with a goal which stemmed from a poor goal-kick from Tan.

Yallop pounced on the sphere and threaded a pass through for Keinzley, who got the better of both Vicki Chong and Janet Groves before lobbing the ball over Suburbs’ goalkeeper and into the net.

Lynn-Avon relaxed almost immediately upon scoring the goal, and Suburbs quickly took the initiative in an effort to seek a quick riposte. Melanie Gooch was too greedy upon getting the better of Hansen, opting to shoot when Rebecca Tegg and Grace Vincent were better placed to convert an opportunity, one which Suburbs’ semi-final star fired tamely at Stephanie Puckrin.

On the half-hour, Gooch charged down the right and whipped in a cross targeting the head of Fraser, who was homing in on the far post. Melissa Ray, who had a sound game in defence for United, headed this opening to the safety offered by Carlisle, who sent Keinzley racing through in pursuit of her through ball. Tan was wise to this chance, however, and raced out of her penalty area to clear the danger.

This action was repeated at the other end of the park by Puckrin seconds later, Fraser having sent Vincent racing through the left-hand side of United’s rearguard.

Five minutes later, Groves sent Vincent racing through, and she checked inside the covering figure of Hansen before crossing to the far post. Fraser was again her target, but once again, Ray intervened, and the danger was averted.

Five minutes before half-time, Parkinson whipped in a superb hanging corner which McCahill met with her head. Tan was equal to the task, however, but United’s captain should have made the acquaintance of referee Smith two minutes before the break, when she sent Tegg sprawling with an errant elbow as the striker charged towards goal.

Aside from the free-kick, which Oostdam blazed over the bar from thirty yards, no further punishment was administered by the official, who should really have

booked McCahill for what was a bookable offence.

Irked by this, Suburbs were further aided by the wind at their backs in the second spell, and made most of the play during the first twenty minutes of the half. Just three minutes after the resumption, Tegg was too ponderous in the penalty area as she looked to get the ball onto her favoured left foot, thus allowing herself to be closed down by a Lynn-Avon defence which had been prised open on their left by Bobbie Moore and Gooch.

Seconds later, a Ray clearance ricocheted off the World University Games Golden Boot winner and flew across the face of goal, seconds before Parkinson’s long-range attempt at the other end of the park bounced past the Suburbs goal, with Tan scrambling across in vain.

After O’Neill had thrashed a twenty-yarder wide of the mark, a great piece of play by Keinzley on the left flank saw her turn and race past two opponents before whipping in a dangerous cross to the far post for Parkinson.

But Sandee Hui made a goal-saving headed clearance to keep Suburbs in the contest, with Parkinson’s resulting corner culminating in a cross from Percival which Tan gathered well under pressure.

In the 58th minute, some ponderous defending by McCahill was pounced on by Gooch, who then got the better of the little-threatened figure of Puckrin, only to shoot tamely after doing so. Anne Tansell mopped up this opportunity, then watched as Puckrin smothered a ricochet off Hui, after Carlisle had cleared an Oostdam free-kick against the Suburbs defender.

O’Neill played the ball wide to substitute Flora McLeod in the 64th minute, and she played a great pass through for Tegg to capitalise on. But Suburbs’ leading goalscorer never got the chance to do so, as Puckrin raced off her line to save at her feet on the edge of the penalty area.

After this, Suburbs appeared to run out of ideas in which to prise open United’s defence, with their attempts all too often foundering on the rock-like figure of Ray, despite the numerous opportunities from set-pieces afforded them by the referee - Lynn-Avon certainly tested the limits of the Laws of the Game with some of their challenges, it must be said.

Ten minutes from time, the cup holders, sensing their opponents were now on the wane, went hunting a second goal, and were rewarded inside ninety seconds. Some superb defending from Vicki Chong thwarted Keinzley initially, but seconds later, a slip by the defender presented the game’s goalscorer with a chance to clinch the cup once more.

Keinzley fired this snap-shot wide, but had mere seconds to wait before scoring the goal which secured the cup once more for Lynn-Avon, as well as ensuring she was named the Uncle Toby’s Women’s Knockout Cup Final’s Most Valuable Player.

As was the case with the first goal, it was a poor goal-kick from Tan which proved the undoing of Suburbs, with Keinzley pouncing on the error to lash home the winner from twenty yards, nine minutes from time.

Suburbs mounted a late response, with Puckrin saving from both Hui and Oostdam before the final whistle, but on a day when they most needed their strikers to fire, their attack ultimately lacked the cutting edge necessary to breach United’s rearguard, something with which the cup winners could always rely on Keinzley to provide.

She did so, twice, thus clinching another Northern Premier Women’s League - Uncle Toby’s Women’s Knockout Cup double for the Lynn-Avon United juggernaut, who, since their only defeat in the cup final, have amassed a staggering record of seventy-three wins, five draws and just two defeats in the eighty games they have played since that occasion in 2001.

Suburbs: Tan; Moore, Chong, Groves, Hui; Fraser (Gerrard, 89), O’Neill (Butterworth, 84), Vincent (McLeod, 53), Oostdam (booked, 18); Tegg, Gooch Lynn-Avon: Puckrin; Ray, McCahill, Tansell, Hansen (Selwyn, 62); Percival, Rainbow, Yallop, Carlisle; Parkinson (Bowker, 69), Keinzley (Doubleday, 88) Referee: Kay Smith

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