Auckland confirmed top spot in the Lion Foundation National Women's League and retained their grip on the NZ Women's Football Challenge Cup for another season at Keith Hay Park on November 4, as they dished out a 9-0 mauling to a Central Soccer combination which, to say they disappointed, is something of an understatement. Coach John Green wasn't ashamed to admit he was “embarrassed” by the performance of his charges afterwards, as well he should. For Central were poor, and that's being polite. They were taught a wet weather footballing lesson by the “A Team” in this encounter, the reigning champions making light of the drizzly conditions to carve their opponents apart almost at will throughout the first seventy minutes of this encounter, at which point they opted to ease right off the intensity and coast home against shell-shocked opposition. Had Auckland kept on the hammer, the league's record scoreline, a 12-0 dismissal of Soccersouth by the “A Team” in 2005, could quite easily have been usurped, such was the mood Auckland Football's National Women's League squad was in. Right from the start, they tore into their opponents with a vengeance, engineering the first chance in the fifth minute of play. Sarah Gregorius tore down the right before crossing to Merissa Smith, who held the ball up before setting up Annalie Longo. She jinked past a defender before shooting wide of the target. Tanja Grunwald replied with a thirty-yarder for Central which Yvonne Vale dealt with comfortably, but the floodgates opened after Ria Percival's twenty-five yard free-kick in the eighth minute had been parried by Central goalkeeper Rangi-Nuku Nikora - no-one in a white shirt was following in to turn home the loose ball. Auckland opened their account in the twelfth minute. Percival's corner picked out the head of Melissa Ray, for whom this was a first start since suffering her ACL injury on Waitangi Day. Her header crashed off the crossbar and brought about a goalmouth scramble, which Ray concluded emphatically by thumping the ball home through a sea of legs from ten yards. Central looked to respond straight away, with Grunwald and Jess Green combining to set up Niki Baldwin. She pulled her fourteenth minute effort wide of the near post, and from Vale's resulting goal-kick, Abby Erceg - the “A Team”'s captain for the day in the absence of the league's leading goalscorer, Rebecca Tegg - flicked the ball on to send Percival haring through. Her bright yellow “banana boots” a blur of movement, the New Zealand international motored clear of all-comers and rounded the advancing figure of Nikora before coolly tucking the ball into an empty net in the fifteenth minute. Three minutes later, Percival was in again. Grace Vincent and Smith played a slick one-two on the left which culminated in the NZ Secondary Schoolgirls star picking out Percival with a pinpoint cross. She deftly lobbed the ball over the stranded figure of Nikora - 3-0, against opponents who simply didn't know what had hit them! Having finally played to something approaching their potential in Christchurch last Sunday, the “A Team” were keen to put on a show for the local faithful who braved the elements, given this was their last home fixture for the year, and Central just happened to be the team who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the 23rd minute, Sarah Gibbs flighted in a free-kick which was cleared to Gregorius, who promptly clipped the ball back into the danger zone. Nikora punched it out to the twenty-five yard mark, where Erceg was lurking. She unleashed a screamer which was bound for the top corner of the net until Nikora flung herself to her right to produce a superb save. The goalkeeper then denied Vincent before turning a Gregorius shot round the post, the striker having superbly turned Kelly Stembridge upon receipt of Petria Rennie's probing pass. Rennie then released Percival in the 28th minute, and she again rounded the too-often-exposed figure of Nikora, although on this occasion, the goalkeeper forced the speedster well wide of the target. Unperturbed, Percival retrieved the situation, adjusted her angle and let fly once more, the surprised Nikora forced to scramble the ball past her near post with her legs in slide tackle fashion. Gregorius then fired over the target after Nikora had parried a Smith effort on the half-hour, and after Vale had grabbed an Ella Wiebe effort as Central mounted a rare riposte, the “A Team” extended their advantage to 4-0, ten minutes before half-time. Nikora tipped a twenty-five yarder from Longo round the post. Gibbs' corner wasn't cleared, and in the melee which followed, Smith found herself standing in an offside position, with just Nikora between her and the target. The ball came to the New Zealand international, and she instinctively stuck it in the net, fully anticipating referee Robbie Fletcher to blow his whistle and signal a free-kick to Central. Instead, silence rained, as well

Ria Percival (Auckland) Melissa Ray (Auckland) Jess Green (Central) Sarah Gregorius (Auckland) Marlies Oostdam (Auckland) Petria Rennie (Auckland)

as the drizzle, and a goal was awarded. Central barely mustered a complaint about this. Their spirit had effectively been shattered long ago, and Auckland wasted little time in rubbing further salt into the wounds. In the 39th minute, Vincent's crossfield ball was cleared by Stembridge to Longo, who promptly slipped Percival in behind the fullback. Her low cross found Gregorius steaming in at the near post, inside which she promptly steered goal number five. The sidenetting denied the most recent goalscorer two minutes before the break, after more good work by Smith, whose reward was to kick-start the scoring just 97 seconds into the second spell. Rennie's splendid control and lay-off of a dropping ball allowed Percival to send Gregorius through. She stopped momentarily, thinking she was offside, then promptly resumed the chase upon realising she wasn't. This confused Nikora, as did Gregorius' subsequent low cross. Smith couldn't miss - 6-0. Two minutes later, Percival raced down the right before picking out Gregorius with her cross. The striker's header hit the crossbar, with half-time substitute Anna Green unable to direct the rebound on target against the team her father coaches and sister, Jess, plays for. In the 52nd minute, Central's day was summed up by its seventh goal. Rennie played the ball forward, giving Percival a heck of a chase. As game as they come, she set  off in pursuit, but it was always a race Nikora was going to win. Incredibly, the goalkeeper's first-time clearance ricocheted off the incoming speedster and straight into the net some fifteen yards away on the angle - a quite bizarre way to conclude a rare hat-trick for Percival, her first for the “A Team”, although she knew little about it, the ball having knocked the wind out of her sails to leave the scorer temporarily prone on the wet turf. Percival had fully recovered by the time Smith again brought the best out of Nikora, after Gregorius had engineered an opening on the left. In the 61st minute, Gregorius found herself with just Nikora to beat, having been put through Central's offside trap by Erceg's through ball. The striker coolly picked her spot - 8-0. Four minutes later, Rennie released Gregorius through Central's square back-line, although the striker initially thought she had strayed offside, so stopped running. The second she did so, however, she realised she wasn't, so set off in hot pursuit of the ball once more, this time with Nikora and Leah Gallie also converging on it. Gregorius won the race, and poked the ball between the goalkeeper and the defender, her hat-trick beckoning. Chelsea Aim had other ideas, however, and cleared off the line. But Gregorius' maiden “A Team” hat-trick was just minutes away, the end product of a superb Auckland move in the 69th minute which began just outside their own penalty area. Rennie, half-time substitute Marlies Oostdam, and Ray interchanged passes, before the last-mentioned played the ball forward to Gregorius. Her angled run allowed her to steer the sphere into Percival's path as she stampeded down the right, and after rounding Stembridge, she fired a cross beyond the far post to Green. She directed her header down and into the path of Gregorius, who smashed home a close-range volley to crown the goal of the game in a manner befitting the quality of a superlative interchange down Auckland's right flank. One can only think the “A Team” thought they could do no better after producing such a sumptuous ninth goal, or they felt it necessary to afford Central some sympathy. Because for the bulk of the last twenty minutes, they effectively shut up shop and played for time, their intensity far below that which they had applied in the preceding seventy minutes. The visitors were still reeling from the effects of their opponents' onslaught, however, and while Wiebe occasionally gave Vale a hurry-up through her willingness to chase lost causes as she continues her recovery from a broken shin, they generally appeared just as keen as their Auckland counterparts for referee Fletcher to blow the final whistle. He eventually did, but only after Percival, Oostdam, fifteen-year-old “A Team” debutant Lauren Murray and Green had gone close inside the final ten minutes of a match which saw Central suffer their heaviest-ever defeat, and leaves them staring at consecutive wooden spoon finishes in the National Women's League. “A Team”:     Vale; Rennie, Ray, Erceg, Gibbs; Percival, Hassett (Oostdam, 46), Longo (Green, 46), Vincent; Gregorius, Smith (Murray, 66) Central:     Nikora; Aim, Gallie, Wenzlick, Stembridge; Green, Baldwin, Hall, Grunwald (booked, 22), Ireton (Stevenson, 36); Wiebe (Bridges, 79) Referee:     Robbie Fletcher