Reigning Lotto Northern Premier Women's League champions Glenfield Rovers bounced back to winning ways at Keith Hay Park on May 15, but were made to work hard for a deserved 4-2 win by a youthful Three Kings United combination boasting three players making their starting debuts in a team sporting ten teenagers. Rovers got off to a firecracker start, Steph Skilton twice going close before releasing Katie Rood in the second minute of play. The goalscoring speed merchant, who enjoyed her first full game following her return from injury, breached the offside trap and calmly rounded advancing United goalkeeper, debutant Rivatino Fuimaono, before slotting home into an empty net, Tessa Berger's despairing chase notwithstanding. United sought a swift riposte, and when Bridgette Armstrong felled Martine Puketapu just outside the penalty area, Annalie Longo was presented with the chance to level the scores. Her free-kick fizzed over Pam Yates' crossbar. Rovers, not content with having established the early ascendancy, looked to double their advantage in the tenth minute, with Rood and Skilton reversing roles as they raced down the right. Berger's superbly timed tackle thwarted her former Three Kings team-mate on this occasion, but Skilton's time would come. Another former United star was also back on her old stamping ground in this match, and the ultra-competitive Sarah Gibbs was itching to make her mark in the best manner possible. A fourteenth minute free-kick was the perfect opportunity, and the midfielder's curled effort arced round and over the wall, only to be denied by the fingertips of Fuimaono, who tipped the effort onto the crossbar. The Three Kings old girls combined seconds later, with Skilton's cross picking out the unmarked Gibbs directly in front of the target. Her glancing header careered across the face of goal - a real let-off for their former club. Claudia Crasborn's pace and versatility earned her a run as an out-and-out striker for United in this match, and Jessie Mathews released her through the inside-right channel in the seventeenth minute with a measured pass. Crasborn promptly let fly, her deflected effort taking the ball past Yates and narrowly past the far post. For the next fifteen minutes, the ball appeared to take on all the properties of a hot potato! Possession changed hands so often you could have been forgiven for thinking the players were trading shares on the stock exchange! Composed, cultured football this period was not!! Thankfully, things settled down again after the half-hour mark, with Rovers regaining the upper hand. A stray Hannah Rishworth throw-in was pounced on by Jamie Hackett, whose pass to Skilton allowed the striker to turn and unleash a twenty-yarder which grazed Fuimano's crossbar. United's defence went missing in action seven minutes before half-time, after Gibbs and Terri-Amber Carlson teamed up on the left. The latter's cross from the by-line was flicked on by Skilton to Rood, who contrived to flick the ball across the face of goal with teal-coloured shirts conspicuous by their absence. Seconds later, a crunching Michele Hogg tackle won possession for Rovers, but Rood failed to capitalise on her team-mate's good work. Evading a challenge, she dragged her shot wide of the mark from twenty yards, and a shriek of frustration pierced the air - a happy camper Rood was not! United twice threatened an equaliser in the dying minutes of the half. Impressive debutant Kirsty Hayr combined with Mathews to send Crasborn racing through in the 43rd minute, but Yates was wise to the threat she posed. Seconds later,  a teasing Kristen Molloy cross arced over Armstrong and Crasborn. Caitlin Smallfield initially failed to deal with the danger the dropping ball posed, but she responded superbly as soon as Crasborn swooped on the ball. The defender produced a splendid recovering tackle to ensure Glenfield went to the dressing rooms a goal to the good. Three minutes after the resumption, they doubled their advantage. Rood rampaged down the left past two before feeding Hogg, who slipped Skilton through. She held off the challenge of Rishworth before squeezing a shot between the defender and the approaching Fuimaono, the ball rolling in by the far post. That made it 2-0 to Rovers, but within four minutes, the scoreline had changed twice more. The visitors were hot on attack, pressing for a third goal in the 51st minute, and forced a corner, which Carlson delivered to the edge of United's penalty area. What unfolded next ranks as one of the finest individual goals this writer has seen in 25 seasons' involvement in New Zealand women's football. Crasborn headed the ball out, latched onto it and ran … and ran … and ran. Past one, two, three opponents she swept as she charged downfield, until the advancing figure of Yates was all she had left to beat. As cool as you like, Crasborn chipped Glenfield's 'keeper without breaking stride … a brilliant finish to crown a quite superb solo strike from a player netting just her third goal in Three Kings' colours.

The home team were still celebrating when Glenfield kicked off and stormed downfield, Hackett leading the charge down the right. She got to the by-line before pulling the ball back for Rood to stride onto. Fuimaono frustrated the front-runner, but galloping in behind the pair of them was Gibbs, who gleefully stabbed home from eight yards to restore Rovers' two-goal advantage. That 3-1 lead should have been halved on the hour. A frankly awful clearance from Yates - by her standards, this was a sloppy performance - presented Crasborn with the ball, but eight minutes after scoring her glory goal she produced an inglorious miss, firing well wide of an open goal with the 'keeper nowhere in sight. Unperturbed, United did halve the deficit in the 66th minute with another stunning strike. Rebecca Burrows unleashed a thirty-five yard screamer which careered past the flying figure of Yates and in off her right-hand post - 3-2, and an interesting finish in prospect. In truth, Glenfield should never have allowed Three Kings to get as close as this. The visitors had been in the ascendancy, but found penetrating a back-line in which Berger and Rishworth were at their resolute best far more challenging than should have been the case. Poor option-taking was a factor more often than not, while there were a couple of occasions when decisions didn't go the way Rovers coach Craig Alexander would have liked, a view he wasn't shy in voicing. Referee Campbell-Kirk Waugh twice had to request that he refrain from doing so, even though the complaint, on each occasion, was justified. Gibbs looked to lift Glenfield out of their slump, tellingly with a first-time pass - not too many of them had been executed to date, and those that were were effective. This certainly was, as it put Rood through the inside-left channel in the 69th minute. Why the striker opted to angle inside before letting fly with her right, when she's as adept at finishing with her left foot, defied logic. The shot, when it came, lacked accuracy. United enjoyed a tidy little spell soon after, with Longo at the heart of it. She picked out Mathews and Burrows with successive corners, with the former's effort being blocked by Smallfield. The latter's near post flick flew across the face of goal in the 72nd minute. Three minutes later, Longo sent Hayr haring down the right with a splendidly weighted pass. The youngster held off the challenge of Smallfield as she made her way into the penalty area before attempting to pick out Burrows with a cross as the midfielder came racing in on the far post. Yates' flying save prevented the United player from heading home an unlikely equaliser. That was the warning shot across the bows which invigorated Rovers as an attacking force, and for the next ten minutes they pounded away at United's goal. Gibbs' corner was scrambled out to Carlson, who picked out Skilton with her delivery. Her flicked effort was grabbed under the bar by the solidly performed Fuimaono on this occasion, while the offside flag came to United's rescue in the 81st minute, Skilton the frustrated forward. Seconds later, Hackett hammered a shot at Rishworth which the defender blocked with her hands as it careered towards her. Unfortunately for the only non-teenager in United's ranks, she was inside the penalty area when doing so, and referee Waugh had no hesitation - penalty. Up stepped Armstrong, who had been solid in defence for the visitors. Hard and low, bottom corner? Not likely. Anything but, in fact - her effort would have been worthy of the cheers of a full house at Eden Park, but fully deserved the groans the eighty-odd folk who braved an autumnal afternoon at Keith Hay afforded it! Armstrong was swift to make amends for her awful 82nd minute miss. Just two minutes later, she sent Rood racing down the right in pursuit of a fine ball forward, and the striker produced a gem of a finish to win the match - a delightful angled lob on the run which arced over Fuimaono and dropped perfectly into the far corner of the net. Another quality strike in a game graced by its fair share of high calibre finishes. Mathews nearly provided another in the 87th minute, a thirty yarder which careered narrowly past Yates' left-hand post. Two minutes later, Hackett went closer still, her snapshot sizzling inches over the United bar after Gibbs and substitute Jess Innes had combined on the left, the newcomer's first touch being a terrific cross to the far post, where Hackett was arriving on cue. Glenfield used the time which remained to clear their bench, Celia Frame becoming the 23rd player they have used this season when she took to the field. Twenty seconds later, the final whistle blew - she hadn't even touched the ball, poor lass, but her team-mates had done enough to revive their pursuit of back-to-back championships. Six more wins, and they will realise their objective. Three Kings:     Fuimaono; Windsor, Rushworth (booked, 62), Berger, Molloy; Hayr, Mathews. Burrows, Longo; Crasborn, Puketapu Glenfield:     Yates; Armstrong, O'Neill, Smallfield, Bresnahan (Frame, 90); Hackett, Hogg, Carlson (booked, 86), Gibbs (McDonald, 90); Rood, Skilton (Innes, 88) Referee:     Campbell-Kirk Waugh