Claudelands Rovers handed Lynn-Avon United a 7-1 hiding at Galloway Park on September 2 to wrap up their maiden Lotto Northern Premier Women's League title in some style, while inflicting a record-equalling defeat upon their victims in the process. They concluded the season having scored a staggering 133 goals in sixteen games, conceding just thirteen and suffering just the one loss in their league campaign, to outgoing champions Glenfield Rovers. Rovers were afforded the ideal start in this match, with the scoring opened after just 108 seconds by player-coach Helen Collins. She set off on a sixty-yard run down the right before seeing her shot parried by Laura Bakker. The 'keeper also blocked Collins' attempt to turn home the rebound, but the league's leading goalscorer wasn't to be denied, and poked the ball home despite the despairing efforts of Dana Humby and Kate Seatter to deny her. Another swashbuckling run from Collins five minutes later culminated in a Holly Patterson shot which grazed the post, to which United responded via a Catherine Bott-led counter-attack, which saw Megan Lee's effort smothered by Naomi-Beth Carter. This sparked a spell of dominance by the visitors, during which Carter denied O'Brien following Daisy Cleverley's measured ball into the winger's stride, and Lee twice blazed over when promising raids deserved better reward. Hannah Carlsen was in her element during this phase of the game, and sparked a 26th minute counter-attack which culminated in O'Brien setting up the Young Ferns captain for a curling twenty-yard chip which just cleared Carter's crossbar. Two minutes later, Carlsen, Rachel Head and Lee combined on the left to present Ellie Jeurissen with the chance to thrash a twenty-five yarder goalwards, the ball flying across the face of goal, much to the relief of Carter and company. Seconds later, Bott won an aerial duel and guided the ball into O'Brien's stride. More good work from the Junior Ferns flank player followed, with Lee the chief beneficiary. Lynn-Avon's leading markswoman wrong-footed both Libby Williams and Kate Carlton to engineer some shooting space, and her twenty-yarder clipped Carter's right-hand post - the closest the visitors had come so far. Cue a Rovers riposte, with Issy Coombes leading the charge down the right in the 31st minute. Rachel Porteous provided a terrific supporting run which proved vital to the move's continuity, the midfielder being in a position to set up Collins for a shot. Bakker smothered this effort, and another by Claudelands' player-coach five minutes later. The 'keeper's resulting clearance saw Cleverley ignite a move which featured Jeurissen's good work on the left flank, and culminated in Lee tucking home a deserved equaliser for the visiting team in the 37th minute. A Lynn-Avon goal wasn't part of the script as far as Claudelands were concerned. This, after all, was their coronation day, the day they were to be presented with the Keith Hay Homes Cup, the symbol of supremacy for the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League champions. To underline the fact that only one team was destined to win on this day, the champions tore straight downfield from the kick-off and restored their lead, Collins steering the ball home across Bakker into the far corner of the net after a penetrating Sarah McLaughlin pass had sent her dashing clear. Not content with being 2-1 ahead, Rovers rampaged forth once more sixty seconds later and made it 3-1 in the 39th minute, this time via an unlikely source. Porteous secured possession in midfield and played it wide to Patterson, who set off down the left at breakneck pace before clipping the ball in towards the near post area. Kylie Jens was storming up in support of her team-mate, and ensured this would be a red-letter day for Claudelands to savour by directing a glancing header beyond the flailing fingertips of Bakker into the net beyond for a real collector's item - the first headed goal of her career! Lynn-Avon never recovered from this double-blow, and Rovers could well have bolstered their lead before the interval to hammer home their superiority on the scoreboard. But Bakker denied both Coombes and Patterson in the shadows of the half-time whistle, the former having been released by a peach of a pass from McLaughlin. Rovers started the second half in fine form, with McLaughlin, Collins and Patterson all denied by Bakker inside the opening ten minutes. United

Tayla O'Brien wrongfoots Kylie Jens Sarah McLaughlin shadowed by Kate Seatter Ellie Jeurissen fends off Holly Patterson Rachel Head gets a pass away as Libby Williams closes Helen Collins and Alex Shadbolt proudly hold the Keith Hay Homes Cup following its presentation

retorted via a Chloe Wilson header, which she directed narrowly past the far post in the 56th minute on receipt of O'Brien's well-flighted corner. But Rovers weren't to be denied a finale to remember, and after Humby had blocked a shot from half-time substitute Tessa Leong - referee Sarah Walker should technically have booked the newcomer, as she entered the action without the officials' knowledge - Patterson produced some splendid sleight of foot to weave through the challenges of Jeurissen, Head and Seatter before chipping onto the roof of the net on the hour mark. Cue Collins, who unleashed a three-goal barrage in the next eight minutes to double Claudelands' tally for the match. Her first owed much to Patterson, who was played through by McLaughlin, only to be twice thwarted by Bakker, both outside and inside the area. The wing wizard held onto the ball, though, and somehow threaded the needle with an angled ball between three defenders to find Collins lurking on the far post, where she gleefully tapped home to complete her hat-trick. In the 66th minute, Collins surged through Lynn-Avon's rearguard to leave herself one-on-one with Bakker. The 'keeper somehow thwarted the striker's goalbound shot with her legs, the ball spinning out for a corner mere inches past the near post. McLaughlin's delivery was partially cleared, but Porteous headed the ball down for Patterson, whose shot on the turn was blocked on the line by Head. The fullback couldn't recover in time to prevent Collins from swooping once more, however - 5-1. Make that 6-1 two minutes later. This time, Leong led the charge, with Collins taking over from her young team-mate to outsmart United's rearguard once more before emphatically sweeping home her fifth goal of the game high into the back of Bakker's net. Leong went close soon after following good combination play by Patterson and Collins, while Lynn-Avon, despite playing the last fifteen minutes of the match sans Bott, who picked up a knock when they had already used their lone substitute, Willowe Poata, kept their opponents honest to the end, despite this equalling their heaviest defeat in Northern Premier Women's League history. Seatter went close with a header from another O'Brien corner in the 72nd minute, while Poata, after taking on Carlton, engineered a lofted thirty yard shot out of nothing in the 84th minute which had Carter scrambling in vain. Fortunately for Rovers, the ball landed on the stanchion immediately behind the angle of far post and crossbar, and ricocheted to safety. By the time this took place, Rovers had struck their seventh goal of the game. After Patterson had hit the post, and Jens had been denied by both Leong - she got in the way of her team-mate's shot - and Bakker ten minutes from time, the goal Patterson was longing for in her final appearance for Claudelands finally materialised. Libby Williams' clearance found her Adelaide United then US university-bound team-mate in the clear on the right flank, off which she cut inside and rounded the advancing figure of Bakker before ramming the ball home into an empty net.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Patterson looked to double her tally for the match two minutes later, but Bakker proved equal to the task. No-one could match Claudelands Rovers this season, however - richly deserved champions. This title triumph is the crowning glory for this Rovers team which Dave Edmondson took charge of in 2008 and set on a course which, over the ensuing five seasons, has seen them finish as beaten semi-finalists, runners-up and winners of the ASB National Women's Knockout Cup, and runners-up and now winners of the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League crown, the first time the trophy has been outside Auckland. With Patterson joining fellow team mainstays Kate Loye and Olivia Chance on US university scholarships next year, Claudelands will be hard-pressed to sustain this period of unprecedented success for too much longer. Right now, though, this is Claudelands Rovers' time, and given the lengthy wait they've had to savour these rewards after having been among the also-rans for so long, no-one should begrudge it of them. Hail the champions! Claudelands:     Carter; Williams, Carlton, Hayes, Jens; Coombes (Leong, 46), O'Connell (Wigglesworth, 68), Porteous; Collins, McLaughlin, Patterson Lynn-Avon:     Bakker; Wilson, Humby, Seatter, Head; Cleverley (Poata, 57), Carlsen, Jeurissen; O'Brien, Bott, Lee Referee:     Sarah Walker