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2014 Reta Fitzpatrick Cup Final
Fabulous "Flea" Upstages Hat-Trick Heroine In Final
by Jeremy Ruane
On any other day, Canterbury University's Aimee Phillips would have been the toast of the town after scoring a hat-trick in the Reta Fitzpatrick Cup Final at ASB Park on September 13.
Instead, she finds herself consigned to the unusual role of having scored a Cup Final hat-trick yet finished on the losing side, a result of her efforts being upstaged by the sheer brilliance of Annalie "Flea" Longo.
The Football Ferns international was light years the best player on the pitch as the curtain came down on Mainland Football's women's season, starting and finishing the scoring in a rip-roaring season finale as Coastal Spirit completed the league-and-cup double with a dramatic 4-3 victory.
University suffered a nightmare start, with captain Liz Gilchrist forced off the park just four minutes into the contest with a badly torn groin - indeed, it's feared she may have torn the muscle off the bone, so severely was she injured.
While the students were coming to grips with this dilemma, they found themselves a goal behind four minutes later, Emma Proctor and Mel Cameron combining for Longo to latch onto the ball and dance round two defenders before calmly stroking the sphere past Michaela Woolf and into the far corner of the net.
These incidents were the only ones of note during the first twenty minutes of the match, along with a couple of sublime Longo passes which were made to look poor by team-mates who weren't on the same wavelength as the gifted schemer.
Frustrated with seeing her work going unrewarded, Longo decided enough was enough in the 22nd minute, and rampaged forward on a solo raid before gifting Lauren Dabner a slide-rule pass which allowed the midfielder to play in Chloe Webster. Woolf raced out to save at the striker's feet.
Five minutes later, Coastal Spirit doubled their lead, and at that stage, University looked dead and buried. An under-hit Milly Connor back-pass was pounced on by Webster, who raced clear of the defence before battering a shot high over Woolf and into the back of the net.
But the students responded, Dayna Napa and former NZ women's rugby star Anika Tiplady combining to present Kat Mason with the chance to put University on the board on the half-hour.
Her snapshot fizzed past the post, but it proved to be the calm before the storm, as five minutes later, the students pulled one back. Tiplady pounced on a stray Dabner pass and sent the ball forward. Phillips outpaced Maia Vink then rounded Una Foyle before rolling the ball home into an empty net from the edge of the penalty area.
Stung at conceding, the Mainland Premier Women's League champions sought to swiftly restore their two-goal advantage, Dabner dashing down the right before picking out Proctor with a cross which the striker squared across goal when scoring appeared the easier option.
Five minutes before half-time, a Dabner cross squirmed through the fingers of Woolf. Spirit were quick to press on as a result of the 'keeper's error, with Longo and Whitney Hepburn combining to move the ball across field for Meikayla Moore, who worked a one-two with Webster as she stormed down the right before firing a cross into the heart of University's goalmouth.
Sadly for Spirit, Cameron over-ran it, allowing Lee Maoate-Cox to tidy up in tandem with Gilchrist's replacement, Ngaria McCulloch, who stepped up to the plate well in the challenging circumstances facing the Hawkey Shield holders.
Maoate-Cox talked herself into the notebook of referee Lauren Watkins just before half-time, as she disputed a free-kick. Maia Vink's resulting set-piece clipped the crossbar twenty yards away as Spirit went to the dressing rooms 2-1 to the good, and on top of proceedings generally.
It's a shame the same can't be said for the referee, the first female appointment to a women's final in the 41-year history of what has become the Reta Fitzpatrick Cup Final.
Lauren Watkins was well out of her depth in this showpiece fixture, and it showed. Her appointment smacked of tokenism, of idealism, of a box marked "female referee for female final" being ticked.
For any Cup Final or showpiece fixture, wherever and whenever it takes place, the match official appointments should be made solely on merit, and
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certainly not on the basis of gender which, sadly, appears to have been the case in this match. That's not fair on the players, nor on the official herself.
The second spell took a while to get going, but it got a heck of a kick-start just prior to the hour mark - a University equaliser. Just prior to it, Spirit went close to extending their lead, with Woolf smothering a Longo drive after the midfielder had looped around Cameron and Proctor and raced through on goal when they combined to good effect.
The students' response was a gem. Maoate-Cox blocked a Longo piledriver, the rebound from which was latched onto by Tiplady. She set off up-field before releasing Phillips through the inside left channel, the striker outpacing the defence before deftly steering the ball under the advancing figure of Foyle from 25 yards out - 2-2!
The proverbial grandstand finish was in store, and neither side disappointed - the final half-hour was riveting! And it served to emphasise just how far ahead of her peers Longo was. Technically, tactically, speed of thought, reading of the game, positional awareness … quite simply, different class!
After Spirit substitute Arna Roberts had been harshly adjudged offside just seconds after entering the fray, she restored her team's lead in the 73rd minute. Chloe Jones' initial corner to the near post was headed out by McCulloch, prompting another delivery into the danger zone.
Longo had other ideas, however, and dashed towards Jones, who played the set-piece to her. The midfielder controlled, turned and side-stepped an opponent virtually in one movement before pinging a made-to-measure cross to the far post, where Roberts was flying in to head home in emphatic fashion - 3-2 Spirit.
Back came University almost immediately, Napa and Rachel Brodie both threatening via Holly Pascoe-inspired moves before they equalised once more, eleven minutes from time. Mason's free-kick wasn't cleared by Spirit's defence, allowing Maoate-Cox to nip in behind them and beat the hesitant figure of Foyle in the air.
Phillips will never score an easier goal in her life - hat-trick. In a Cup Final. 3-3. Could there possibly be a further twist in this remarkable encounter?
Most definitely yes. Just two minutes after this latest equaliser, Hepburn played a ball forward which allowed Roberts to get the better of her marker and set her sights on goal. Woolf wasn't having a bar of it, however, producing a brave save at the newcomer's feet.
Three minutes later, Longo set off on another rampaging run, during which she worked a one-two with Dabner before laying the ball off to Cameron. Her shot was blocked, but the ricochet landed perfectly in Longo's stride. She let fly, and again, the students' rearguard stood firm, only for Longo to have another go, this time with Woolf bearing down on her. The ball flew wildly wide, much to "Flea"'s frustration.
Four minutes from time, Longo played a gem of a ball forward for Proctor, who promptly combined with Webster to engineer another opening. Woolf raced off her line once more to keep her side in the contest. For now.
For Longo simply would not be denied, and in the 87th minute, she produced a quite brilliant match-winning goal to cap off her immense personal performance.
Latching onto a loose ball half-way inside University's half, she burst one opponent then rounded another. As she did, she spotted Woolf off her line, and from wide out on the left, she delivered a teasing chipped cross-shot which arced over the 'keeper and landed perfectly in the far corner of the net - 4-3 Spirit.
Could University come back again? They certainly tried, but Longo's moment of magic proved one hurdle too many for the students, who had to be content with their runners-up medals as Coastal Spirit began celebrating their third Mainland League and Reta Fitzpatrick Cup double.
University: Woolf; Maoate-Cox (booked, 44), Gilchrist (McCulloch, 6), Shields; Napa, Mason, Brodie, Tiplady (booked, 56), Pascoe; Connor, Phillips
Spirit: Foyle; Moore, Wilson, Jones, Vink; Dabner, Hepburn, Longo, Proctor; Cameron (Roberts, 67 (booked, 89)), Webster (Smith, 90)
Referee: Lauren Watkins
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