The Football Ferns recorded their 100th victory in "A" internationals on 25 February, Maya Hahn's late winner earning them a 1-0 win over Costa Rica at the Estadio Piededas de Santa Ana in San Jose. 'Twas a match which was never allowed to rise above the mundane, thanks largely to the whistle-happy display of Honduran referee Merlin Soto. She blew up any incident which involved the slightest hint of physicality, thus stifling any prospects of flow and continuity in both teams' play, and making the contest a very hard watch from a spectator's perspective. As a consequence of the game's stop-start nature, chances were at a premium throughout proceedings. "La Sele" enjoyed the first opening, an eighth minute attack which saw Priscila Chinchilla give Liz Anton a roasting on the right before chipping in a cross for Maria Salas which she was prevented from heading goalwards by the covering figure of Kate Taylor. Anton made amends by blocking Mariana Benavides' shot from the resulting corner. The Football Ferns responded via Milly Clegg, who linked up with Indiah-Paige Riley to set up an opening for Grace Neville to exploit down the right. Her cross to the far post was headed past it by Annalie Longo in the thirteenth minute. Twelve minutes later, Michaela Foster and Longo combine for the benefit of Riley, who delivered a lovely cross which Clegg was mere inches away from turning home - it was the best opening of the contest thus far. Costa Rica responded on the half-hour, Maria Coto's piledriver being blocked by the arm of Neville, prompting a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area. Captain Katherine Alvarardo's set-piece prowess proved up to the challenge of firing the ball over the defensive wall, but beating the formidable Victoria Esson as well? Not a prayer, as her flying denial confirmed. Before the interval, Anton and Jacqui Hand combined to allow Riley the chance to deliver another searching cross, Neville her target. Benavides averted the danger, as did Claudia Bunge at the other end of the park five minutes before half-time, the stopper clearing Alvarado's cross after Chinchilla had made more in-roads down the right. There was little change to the pattern of the game in the second spell, with referee Soto making herself the centre of attention with her whistle-happy ways, much to the frustration of the players, who simply wanted to get on with the task of playing without the soundtrack provided by the official's largely unwelcome contributions to proceedings. Riley rattled the side-netting ten minutes into the half after Hand had got the better of well-performed fullback Jimena Gonzalez on the left, to which the host nation responded with a 61st minute raid which brought the best out of Esson. The 'keeper produced a double save, denying an Alexa Herrera cross at her near post after it had taken a wicked deflection off Bunge, then swiftly recovering to prevent Salas from turning home the rebound - this was her thirteenth time she's kept a clean sheet in the 26 internationals she's played, a ratio only surpassed by the legendary Leslie King, who kept the opposition scoreless in sixteen of her 27 internationals. At the other end of the park, Riley was a frequent source of concern for Costa Rica with her probing runs. In the 65th minute, she combined with Katie Kitching, whose teasing cross was headed wide by Neville. The resulting goal-kick only got as far as Foster,

who invited substitute Kelli Brown to take on and beat Benavides, a feat she accomplished, only for the defender to recover and force the newcomer to fire past the post. Macey Fraser had entered the fray at the same time as Brown, and started to influence proceedings eighteen minutes from time with a gem of a pass to Kitching on the left. She laid the ball back to Riley, whose tantalising cross found Neville racing in to meet it, only to fail to direct the sphere on target. Encouraged by this, Michael Mayne's charges continued to probe in this fashion, and while a Kitching free-kick fifteen minutes didn't have the desired effect in this regard, what followed very easily could have done. Costa Rican goalkeeper Noelia Bermudez comfortably fielded the free-kick, then cleared the ball into the back of the retreating Meikayla Moore, off whom it ricocheted wildly - it could very easily have flown into the net! Had it done so, the goal wouldn't have been allowed to stand, as referee Soto bizarrely blew for a free-kick against Moore, presumably relating to her proximity in relation to Bermudez when the goalkeeper executed her clearance!!!!! Quite how this referee has been awarded a FIFA badge Lord alone knows, but quite frankly, Miss Soto doesn't have the first clue! An embarrassment to the refereeing fraternity. She made some weird and far from wonderful calls throughout this international, but this was far and away the worst of them, which is saying something! Ten minutes from time, Emma Pijnenburg became the 212th Football Fern, but it was the 210th who settled this contest in the 89th minute, with more than a little help from fellow substitute Fraser, and a cameo from Bermudez. The goalkeeper's goal kick, arising from a Pijnenburg cross, flew straight out of play. Fraser received the ball from the resulting throw-in, and proceeded to torment two Costa Rican defenders, not once by twice! Having taken them to the cleaners, she picked out the unmarked figure of Maya Hahn on the edge of the penalty area, from where the newcomer unleashed a peach of a curling effort which arced beyond the diving figure of Bermudez and rippled the side of the net by the post to the undisguised delight of her Football Ferns team-mates - 1-0, with time all but up on the clock. There was still time for Riley to set off on a rampaging run past three opponents before working a one-two with Fraser, which allowed the goalscorer in the first game of this series to invite this game's markswoman to attempt to double her tally from twenty-five yards. With the last kick of the game, Hahn saw her effort fly narrowly past Bermudez's right-hand post, but the sound of the final whistle seconds later confirmed this rare Football Ferns' victory - the 100th in this team's fifty-year history, and their first outside Oceania since beating Mexico and The Philippines in a two-match series in Los Angeles in September 2022. Costa Rica:     Bermudez; Gonzalez, Blanco, Benavides, Coto; Pinell, Alvarado, Valenciano (Morales, 88), Herrera (M. Matarrita, 69); Salas (V. Matarrita, 69), Chinchilla (Varela, 80) Football Ferns:     Esson; Bunge (Moore, 66), Taylor, Anton; Neville (Pijnenburg, 80), Kitching, Foster, Longo (booked, 57 (Hahn, 66)), I. Riley; Hand (Fraser, 56), Clegg (Brown, 56) Referee:     Merlin Soto (Honduras)