Auckland's “A Team” are back on top of New Zealand women's soccer's pecking order following the 2005 Lion Foundation National Women's League Grand Final at Wellington's Newtown Park, where they dismantled Capital Soccer 4-2 to end the year-long reign of the Wellingtonians as New Zealand's provincial champions. For their efforts, a happy team returned home to Auckland with a trophy trifecta - the National Women's League championship, the NZ Women's Soccer Challenge Cup, and the Roy Cox Shield, which is at stake whenever the code's premier provincial practitioners lock horns. Throw in a personal double for striker Rebecca Tegg - winner of both the competition's Golden Boot and Player of the Year awards - and it's a very buoyant bunch who headed north with the spoils of war, especially given Capital had headed south with the same three trophies following last year's Grand Final in Auckland. Because of that match, and their earlier round-robin encounter - Capital won both games 2-1, there was an element of concluding some unfinished business in the way Auckland set about their task, and despite going into the game as underdogs - contrary to the claims of the defending champions, right from the off the “A Team” asserted their authority on proceedings, the prevailing wind in their faces notwithstanding. That said, it was the Wellingtonians who savoured the first sniff of a goal, as Zarnia Cogle released Annalise Van Kampen with a sixth minute crossfield ball. She never got near it, however, Stephanie Puckrin's anticipation putting paid to hopes of an early goal for the vocal local crowd, some five hundred-strong in number. The “A Team” struck back with a vengeance just two minutes later. Grace Vincent spread play wide to Sarah Gibbs, who played the ball up the line for Marlies Oostdam. She scythed inside and unleashed a snorter, about which Aroon Clansey knew little. The ball crashed off the far post to safety, much to the goalkeeper's relief. After Vincent had warmed Clansey's gloves from distance, the “A Team” opened the scoring in fine style in the thirteenth minute. Dana Humby lobbed the ball forward, but Capital's NWL Player of the Year, Toni Horne, appeared little threatened as she dropped back to cover it. That was until Maia Jackman appeared on the scene, her chasing down of a seemingly lost cause allowing her to dispossess Horne in the penalty area and clip a cross to the far post. Margot Bowker will never score an easier goal for Auckland in her life! She nearly notched a second two minutes later, firing a snapshot wide of an untended net from distance after Clansey had inadvertently cleared the ball straight to her, injuring herself in the process. Still Auckland pressed, the bit firmly between their teeth, driven on by Kristy Hill in the midfield anchor role. She got through a truckload of work in this match, including a nineteenth minute incident which saw her dispossessing Patrice Bourke and switching play to Oostdam. She let fly with another full-blooded drive, one which Clansey turned onto the post. Bowker and Tegg were following in, but in their haste to turn the ball home, got in each other's way - another chance lost. After Hill had fired wide from twenty-five yards, a wayward back-pass from Cogle was pounced on by Vincent. Only Bourke's covering run prevented the midfielder from capitalising on this 22nd minute opening. Clansey cleared the ball downfield, with Rebecca O'Neill latching onto possession half-way inside Auckland's half. She squared the ball to Bria Sargent, who was steaming up in support, and who unleashed the proverbial rocket on the run from fully thirty yards. The ball dipped late and hit the crossbar, struck the diving Puckrin on the back of the head and ricocheted to safety. This sparked a brief spell of Capital pressure, with Angela Goodridge firing a twenty yard free-kick wide of the mark just before the half-hour. But the “A Team” fired a riposte of their own soon afterwards, Clansey doing well to grab a cross from Hill intended for Bowker, before Oostdam sent another twenty yard effort fizzing past the post. Cogle, O'Neill and Goodridge combined neatly to release Ashlee Delahunty through the offside trap in the 36th minute, but Puckrin, as she had done half-an-hour earlier, raced off her line to clear the danger. At this stage, Capital were starting to get a handle on proceedings, but their prospects of parity were dealt a hammer blow six minutes before half-time by a goal which would have graced any cup final, such was its quality. Auckland forced a corner on the right, which Oostdam came across to deliver to an area some ten yards out from the far post. Jackman launched herself through the gathered throngs to execute the perfect diving header - it was a magnificent goal fully befitting of the occasion, and the “A Team” engulfed the delighted scorer.

Annalies Van Kampen and Rebecca Tegg Maia Jackman and Angela Goodridge Dana Humby and Zarnia Cogle Liz Oliver and Marlies Oostdam Bria Sargent Terry McCahill brandishes the trophies, as NZS's Michele Cox and Graham Seatter look on

Auckland should have scored a third goal in stoppage time at the end of the first half. Humby's throw-in was flicked on by Tegg, and Capital's failure to clear allowed Hill a glorious opening, some eight yards out from goal. But she somehow prodded the ball wide when scoring seemed an easier option. The second half commenced with Capital desperate to reduce the deficit, and after a great run on the left from Tegg had seen her slalom past four opponents and pick out Vincent, whose shot was grabbed greedily by Clansey, they did just that six minutes into the half. A Gibbs misjudgement allowed Van Kampen in on the right, and she got to the byline before whipping in a low cross. Puckrin spilled it, allowing Goodridge to slide the ball home from close range - 2-1 to the visitors now, and game on big time! Sadly, after pulling the goal back Capital resorted to tactics unbefitting of the name champions, frequently walking a disciplinary tightrope in their desperation to redress the balance by producing a string of challenges which targeted the opponent more than the ball, with Jackman frequently a focus of their ill-disguised intentions. Auckland began to respond in kind, until generally well-performed referee Matthew Cooke, following a particularly vicious challenge by Jacqui Goble on Jackman, decided enough was enough and clamped down on things before they got too out of hand - they were certainly threatening to. Two saves in a thirty-second spell twenty minutes from time by Puckrin frustrated Capital still further, as she blocked a twenty-five yarder from Bourke before racing off her line to clear before Goodridge could latch onto Cogle's through ball. Back came the “A Team”, Clansey tipping a 72nd minute free-kick from Humby onto the crossbar. Soon after, Jackman was waylaid again, the effects of the battering she had taken briefly sidelining the New Zealand international with cramp. But she was to extract the ultimate revenge on Capital ten minutes from time, when, with her last touch of the game, she scored what proved to be the match-winning goal. The move started on the left with Tegg, her slide-rule pass splitting the defence and inviting Oostdam to stride out down the flank once more. She flighted a lovely cross to the far post, where Jackman launched herself skywards to direct her header over Sargent and across Clansey into the far corner of the net - 3-1, a goal which silenced the crowd, delighted her team-mates, and provided the perfect riposte to the unsportsmanlike tactics to which Jackman had been subjected. Capital weren't done with, however, and a hanging cross from Liz Oliver found Puckrin, Melissa Ray and Terry McCahill playing pass the parcel in the penalty area, with none of them taking responsibility as the ball dropped in between them. As it bounced, both Puckrin and Ray reacted, the goalkeeper charging forward to punch the sphere off her team-mate's head. Unfortunately for the puncher, the recipient of the ball was Bourke, who wasted little time in gleefully hooking home into an empty net - 3-2, and the crowd was vocal once more. While they were still celebrating, the “A Team” stormed downfield straight from the kick-off, led by Melanie Gooch and Rebecca Parkinson down the right. The former played the ball inside to Tegg, whose shot was blocked. The rebound fell perfectly for Oostdam, who, with the outside of her left foot, curled a twenty-yard gem past the unsighted Clansey and in off the post to restore Auckland's two-goal advantage. That was the death knell for the defending champions, with the offside flag denying the “A Team” a fifth goal before the final whistle, as Parkinson thundered home a rasping twenty-yarder. They were well happy with their 4-2 triumph over Capital, however, sweet revenge for a year ago, and a fitting conclusion to their unfinished business dealings with their arch rivals. “A Team” coach Sean Douglas was understandably delighted with the outcome, a tactical triumph for someone in his first season coaching women's football. “We changed the way we played in a week, and it worked to a tee. The team carried out their instructions to the letter. “Everyone stood out, really, but Maia Jackman's two goals, Kristy Hill's display in the holding role in midfield, and Margot Bowker, who did a fantastic job given she hadn't played for a while, are worthy of special mention”. Captain Terry McCahill was very happy to win. “We're not happy that we let in two goals, but we're very pleased that we turned it straight around on each occasion Capital scored. Pretty happy is the overall feeling, though - a case of doing unto others what they have done unto you in the past”. Capital:     Clansey (booked, 50); Oliver, Goble, Sargent, Horne; Van Kampen, O'Neill, Bourke, Cogle; Goodridge (booked, 43), Delahunty (Milne, 76) Auckland:     Puckrin; Humby, Ray, McCahill, Gibbs; Jackman (Gooch, 81), Hill, Vincent (Selwyn, 87), Oostdam; Tegg; Bowker (Parkinson, 66) Referee:     Matthew Cooke