A Jasmine Pereira hat-trick fired Three Kings United back to the top of the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League on goal difference on May 8, as they overcame a much-improved Fencibles United side 3-1 at William Green Domain. The visitors began the game with the unusual sight of Kristy Hill in goal, the defender donning the gloves in the absence of Football Ferns custodian Rebecca Rolls and the injured Abby Roper to bring back memories of 18 June 2008, when Hill took over twixt the sticks for her country against Canada at the Peace Queen Cup, after half-time goalkeeping substitute Rachel Howard had been sent off for a professional foul. She was very swiftly called into action, Betsy Hassett and Nina Feliciano combining in the second minute to present Maxine Rawnsley with a shooting chance which deflected off the recalled - and well-performed - Claudia Crasborn, initially wrong-footing Hill, who quickly recovered the situation. Three Kings' first threat on goal, four minutes later, saw them opening the scoring, but they contributed very little to the event. Gemma Lewis played the ball back to Courtney Napa, who simply dwelt on the ball. All the while, Pereira, as Three Kings' first line of defence, was hovering with intent, and by the time Napa got herself organised the striker was bearing down on her at a great rate of knots. A hurried clearance followed, but unfortunately for Napa, it cannoned off Pereira straight into the net - a gift goal, and the sense of heads dropping among the home team's ranks just wouldn't go away. Three heads didn't drop, however. Hayley Bowden, Hassett and Rosie White have been down this road a few times at international level over the years, so know exactly what to do in such circumstances - hit back, hard and fast! Within four minutes, they'd engineered the equaliser, Bowden and White combining to force the corner which Hassett whipped into the goalmouth. Hill got her hands to it, but couldn't keep it out - 1-1, game on, and a sense of belief was now cascading through Fencibles' ranks. Sixty seconds later, Rawnsley released Aimee Coggar down the right. Hill spilled her angled cross, and White pounced instantly. Just as she let fly, however, birthday girl Shivi Anthony produced a terrific tackle to avert the danger. After Hill had grabbed a curling effort from Coggar, Bowden - far more like her usual self - ghosted in between two opponents before feeding Feliciano. Her low cross invited White to let fly, only for Hill to block the effort with her face at point-blank range. In the seventeenth minute, a White corner was met flush on the volley ten yards out by Hassett. It looked a goal all the way, until Hill instinctively flung herself to her left and somehow managed to paw the ball away - it was a phenomenal denial, when one takes Hill's relative inexperience in the number one jersey into account. Three Kings instantly launched a counter-attack, Hannah Wall leading the charge against her old club. Her slide-rule pass rewarded Martine Puketapu's angled run from right to left, but try as she might the striker couldn't shake off the attentions of Alana Hislop, who ultimately blocked Puketapu's shot to safety. Over the next five minutes or so, both defences rode their luck as the intensity never relented, before White set off on one of her solo raids which generally take some stopping. Neither Crasborn nor Isabella Richards could contain "The Golazo Girl", who darted inside before drilling a dipping twenty-five yarder against the top of the crossbar. The visitors responded with a delightful flowing move, stringing passes together all over the park before finding a way to goal via Pereira on the right. She gave Sarah Fuller the slip before firing in a cross which Alison Wintle turned against her own post. Fencibles survived this scare, but a poor clearance from Napa seconds later invited further pressure. Pereira duly delivered it, but the 'keeper recovered to smother the shot at her near post. Three Kings then contrived a string of corners, all of which were delivered by Hannah Robert. Her first saw Richards' header blocked on the line by Fuller, while Wall came hurtling through the crowd to meet the next delivery with a flying eight yard header which flashed past the post. Moments later, another Robert corner was punched out by Napa to Jessie Mathews, who met it perfectly with a controlled volley which was goalbound until it struck Bowden square amidships. Fencibles survived again. Five minutes before the break, it was Three Kings' turn to wipe their brows. Feliciano led the charge before linking with Hassett. She fed the charging figure of Bowden, who promptly worked a one-two with White before seeing her shot on the turn blocked by Anthony, who was making a great fist of her role as a stand-in centre-back. Alongside her, Kristen Molloy hardly put a foot wrong all evening, despite having barely kicked a ball in anger this season. Crasborn, too, hasn't played a full ninety minutes in a wee while, but relished the chance to do so, particularly in the second half. The former Junior Ferns star got the ball rolling three minutes into the spell with a well-weighted ball in behind Wintle for Puketapu to latch onto.

Instead of targeting the "postage stamps", where goalkeepers rarely reach, she shot straight at Napa, who was relieved to turn the ball over the bar. Robert's resulting corner picked out Nadia Pearl on the far post. She headed the ball across for Richards, but Napa grabbed her header, then blocked a Pereira shot after Puketapu had picked out her strike partner. The rebound fell invitingly for Wall, who was felled by Napa in her eagerness to recover the situation. Well-performed referee Johanna O'Connor had no hesitation in pointing to the spot, from where Pereira rattled home a quality penalty to restore Three Kings' advantage six minutes into the second half. "The Three Amigos" looked to redress the balance instantly. Hassett picked out Bowden, whose first-time inch-perfect pass into White's stride allowed the striker to steal a march on the defence. Beating Hill proved more challenging, however, the 'keeper stopping this effort, then scrambling the ball to safety seconds later after Bowden's beautifully weighted ball into the danger zone found Feliciano steaming in behind Hassett, only for the pint-sized striker to be denied by Hill's scrambling denial. The resulting corner from White found its way to Hassett, who thundered a fifteen yard volley inches past Hill's left-hand post as the home team pressed for a second equaliser - how Fencibles will cope without their Canadian-bound colleagues remains to be seen, but they are different gravy when Bowden, Hassett and White are in the groove, make no mistake. Cue another Three Kings raid, Wall once more leading the way, one of twelve current or former senior and age-grade internationals on the pitch in this match, with a further two on the visitors' bench. Wall brought Pereira into play, and the hat-trick-chasing striker promptly forced a parried save from Napa. Puketapu's attempt to turn home the rebound was blocked by Wintle, with Richards unable to direct this rebound beyond the recovering figure of Napa in the 57th minute. Two minutes later, Puketapu powered clear on the left in a two-on-two situation. In support was Pereira, whose first-time shot was matched by Napa's terrific reaction save, low to her right. Back came Fencibles, Hassett, Bowden and Rawnsley - another noteworthy display - combining to release Feliciano, who evaded a challenge before guiding her shot past the post. Seconds later, Hassett did Crasborn a treat in the area before unleashing a rocket cross which cannoned off Bowden, allowing Molloy to mop up the danger. Soon after, however, the home team were on the hunt once more for their second equaliser. Bowden linked with substitute Sonia Lovemore on the right, the newcomer's resulting cross careering over both White and Hill at the near post, and the flying figure of Feliciano on the far post. Nineteen minutes from time, Hassett and Bowden were plotting more mischief via a one-two in the centre circle when Rawnsley failed to read their intentions and got in the way of the return pass. Instantly, Wall was onto the loose ball, with Puketapu and Pereira racing forward ahead of her, to left and right respectively. The hat-trick hunter was in far more space, but Wall opted to for Puketapu, who responded with a rifled drive which grazed the far post. Seconds later, Wall was leading the charge once more, and this time she released Pereira through the inside right channel. Napa blocked the striker's angled drive, with Wintle denying Puketapu the chance to turn home the rebound. More Three Kings pressure followed, Robert's corner seeing Wall's shot blocked by Rawnsley. Within seconds of this, the visitors had clinched the points via a swift counter-attack. Puketapu led it, her pass inviting Pereira to pick her spot beyond Napa, a task she accomplished with cool precision to clinch the points fifteen minutes from time. Substitute Courtney Rowse stung Hill's gloves from twenty-five yards as Fencibles sought a way back into the contest, but Three Kings wouldn't relent. Crasborn delivered a delicious pass into Pereira's stride, and her low cross found substitute Tessa Leong steaming in to meet it at the near post. With her first touch, she missed the target by inches. Six minutes from time, White had Anthony in all sorts of trouble with the defender facing her own goal. But she kept a cool head about her to wrong-foot the front-runner, in doing so snuffing out any remaining hopes Fencibles held of recovering the deficit in the final minutes. For the remaining chances fell to Three Kings, with Puketapu, Pearl - with a header from a Robert corner - and substitute Hannah Blake all going close in that time, Napa denying the newcomer with a stoppage time save to ensure the visitors' victory would only be via a 3-1 scoreline at the end of a highly enterprising and entertaining encounter. Fencibles:     Napa; Lewis, Hislop, Wintle, Fuller (Rowse, 52); Cogger (Lovemore, 47), Bowden, Rawnsley, Hassett, White; Feliciano Three Kings:     Hill; Crasborn, Anthony, Molloy, Robert; Mathews, Pearl, Richards; Pereira (Porteous, 86), Puketapu (Blake, 90), Wall (Leong, 78) Referee:     Johanna O'Connor