Australia's Matildas will be heading to their local Lotto shop on Monday morning to buy a ticket in the next draw. Given the way they rode their luck against the Football Ferns at McKellar Park, Canberra, on June 16,  you can just about guarantee they'll take out the top prize. New Zealand's champion women's team did everything but end one of the longest winless streaks in trans-Tasman sport on this sunlit afternoon in Australia's capital, with 2,248 fans looking on in nervous silence as the Matildas managed to hold on for a hard-earned 1-1 draw with their arch-rivals, who have now gone twenty-six matches since last savouring the sweet taste of victory over Australia. Lord knows the Football Ferns deserved better fate in this match. They outplayed, out-foxed and out-manoeuvred their higher-ranked opponents for long periods of this Canberra Centenary Cup encounter, the winner of which was decided via a penalty shoot-out - needless to say, when your luck's in … Matildas, 4-2 on spot kicks, with the efforts of Amber Hearn and Katie Hoyle being well saved by Brianna Davey. The shoot-out was of novelty value only - the Football Ferns weren't even aware it was to take place until the ground announcer advised all and sundry what was happening after the final whistle! What mattered more was the ninety minutes which preceded it, and the silence throughout of the usually verbose Australian crowd spoke volumes with regard to which was the better team in this encounter. The Football Ferns grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck from the outset, dominating possession and territory, and oozing confidence as they did so. Only a vital Clare Polkinghorne clearance prevented Amber Hearn from swooping on a Ria Percival ball forward in the fifth minute. Two minutes later, a timely tackle from Steph Catley denied New Zealand's most prolific markswoman, after Hannah Wilkinson had headed a well-flighted Percival free-kick down into Hearn's stride. In the eleventh minute, the ball hit the back of the net - New Zealand's. Australia's first attack resulted in a corner, which Servet Uzunlar flighted perfectly onto the head of her captain, Polkinghorne. From eight yards, she sent the ball flying past the diving figure of Erin Nayler to open the scoring. The Football Ferns' reaction was just like the t-shirt says - "Keep Calm And Carry On!" And they did, carving out two chances in the next four minutes which prompted Davey to deny both Annalie Longo - her fiftieth New Zealand international was one of her finest - and Hearn, whose twenty yarder lacked her usual venom. The Matildas swiftly adopted a counter-attacking ploy in response to the Football Ferns' possession-based approach to the match, with Emily Van Egmond's range of passing a key element of this. The playmaker's sixteenth minute through ball sent birthday girl Tameka Butt hurtling through New Zealand's rearguard, but Nayler anticipated the danger well and saved at the feet of the 22-year-old. Two minutes later, Van Egmond sent Elise Kellond-Knight careering away down the left, from where she angled a cross into the near post for the fast-arriving figure of Sam Kerr to exploit. The speedster failed to reach the ball in time, however, and no-one was following in behind her,  much to New Zealand's relief. The Australians began to come back into the match around this time, although the Football Ferns aided their cause via a couple of mistimed Sarah Gregorius runs which attracted the attention of the offside flag - and it must be said, a couple of these calls weren't exactly convincing from the video evidence. As well, the visitors' distribution was at times found wanting, with misdirected or over-hit passes increasing in frequency during this spell. Balls out of defence were particularly affected by this problem, but possession was swiftly regained thanks to the tireless efforts of Longo, Hoyle and Betsy Hassett, who, like Longo, was also earning her fiftieth cap, and shone throughout - this writer's star turn in white. On the half-hour, the combined efforts of Rebekah Stott and Abby Erceg staved off a Matildas raid which featured Butt and Kerr, and targeted striker Michelle Heyman, who had struck the winning goal when the teams clashed three days previously, in a behind-closed-doors encounter. Teigen Allen was next to feature for the Matildas, the overlapping fullback's right wing rampage culminating in a near post cross which Butt was only prevented from capitalising upon by the alert figure of Nayler, who raced out to block at point-blank range. Back came the Football Ferns, aided by a wayward clearance from Davey, who directed the ball straight to Hannah Wilkinson. She powered into the penalty area, but was prevented from picking out Hearn with her low cross by the fast-covering figure of Polkinghorne - she led by example in Australia's ranks. That 34th minute incident was followed two minutes later by a Hoyle ball forward which allowed Ali Riley to storm forth down the wing, gather the ball before it reached the byline and deliver a high quality cross on the run in one movement.

Wilkinson came hurtling in to meet it, but was beaten to the dropping ball once again by Polkinghorne - she had an immense game at the heart of the Matildas' back-line. But she couldn't do a thing about the Football Ferns' richly deserved equaliser, six minutes before half-time. Uzunlar was still feeling the effects of a collision with Wilkinson when Longo picked out the tall attacker on the right. Wilkinson duly made a beeline for the byline and pulled the ball back for the incoming figure of Gregorius, who initially overran it. But the speedster swiftly secured the sphere and sent it soaring into the top far corner of the net from fifteen yards - a splendidly struck leveller. Erceg went close to altering the 1-1 scoreline from long-range soon after, while five minutes into the second half, Wilkinson's touch deserted her when, having been the recipient of Alanna Kennedy's wayward clearance, she got the better of the recovering defender, only to knock the ball too close to Davey as she looked to engineer an angle for the shot. Catley, with a low drive, and Heyman, whose already unique hairstyle was parted by an Uzunlar corner in the 54th minute, went close as the Matildas enjoyed a brief respite from Kiwi dominance, but the ball was soon back in the Football Ferns' possession. Specifically, that of Longo, who weaved her way through three challenges before crossing low to the near post, where Hassett, her long-time partner in crime - they have been appearing in rep teams together for nigh on a decade now, was arriving to meet it. Davey saved bravely at the feet of the midfielder - the 'keeper suffered a bang to her brow for her troubles - while at the other end of the park in the 62nd minute, New Zealand's number one was forced to reveal similar courageousness when Butt raced through after a lobbed ball forward by Polkinghorne. Nayler didn't hesitate to thwart the threat, racing off her line to beat the ball away before Butt copped the full force of the 'keeper's trailing leg, and had to depart the fray briefly while she received treatment for the blow. The Football Ferns were looking to deliver a blow of another kind by now, and in the 65th minute, Erceg, Hassett and Gregorius combined to send Riley racing down the left, the fullback's progress being checked by Allen. Riley promptly played the ball back to Gregorius, whose precise pass inside allowed Longo to unleash an angled first-time ball through the inside left channel, just too far in front of Wilkinson. It was a very close call for the Matildas, who went close themselves twenty minutes from time when Kerr's teasing cross-shot out of the setting sun had Nayler flailing in vain at the dipping ball. Fortunately for her, it flew narrowly past the far post. With Kirsty Yallop having taken over from Longo in midfield, the Football Ferns proceeded to re-establish their vice-like grip on their arch-rivals throughout the last twenty minutes, and their relentlessness in probing for an opening drove the expectant crowd to silence, fearing that a first Kiwi win over the Matildas since October 1994 was imminent. Try as they might, however, it wasn't to be, even following the introduction of Rosie White to the fray. Erceg went close with a header from a Percival free-kick during this spell, while Wilkinson's pursuit of a Stott through ball was only thwarted by Kennedy's recovering challenge. Yet the Football Ferns nearly had the draw denied them in stoppage time. Uzunlar's corner out of the sun found Kellond-Knight racing in to meet it beyond the far post, and her header ricocheted off Nayler onto the post, prompting an almighty goalmouth scramble which was only brought to a halt by well-performed Chinese referee Gin Liang when Nayler clearly regathered possession. 1-1 it ended, then, with a penalty shoot-out deciding the trophy winner. The efforts of Hearn and Hoyle were superbly saved by Davey, and while Stott and Wilkinson were successful with their efforts, Nayler found herself being sent the wrong way by the efforts of Van Egmond, Uzunlar and Kerr, after Kellond-Knight had opened the Matildas' successful sequence from the spot via the post. It was a harsh outcome for the Football Ferns, a game from which they deserved much better reward for their efforts. They completely outplayed their arch-rivals, who somehow managed to extend to 26 matches since New Zealand last defeated Australia in a senior women's international. That's a sequence which will be stomped on, one of these days … Matildas:     Davey; Allen (booked, 60), Kennedy (Carroll, 83), Polkinghorne, Catley; Butt (Gorry, 73), Uzunlar, Van Egmond; Kerr, Heyman (Gielnik, 87), Kellond-Knight F'ball Ferns:     Nayler; Percival (booked, 68), Stott, Erceg, Riley; Longo (Yallop, 66), Hoyle (booked, 40), Hearn, Hassett; Wilkinson, Gregorius (White, 74) Referee:     Gin Liang (China)