New Zealand's Football Ferns concluded their two-match tour of China on December 19 on the wrong end of a 4-0 scoreline against their hosts, despite outplaying the “Steel Roses” for lengthy periods of the match. A bizarre own goal from Maia Jackman twenty-five minutes into the match - she over-hit a back-pass and ended up lobbing Jenny Bindon from thirty-five yards - was supplemented by a Han Duan effort on the hour, as the Football Ferns fell victim to a counter-attack. That gave China a two-goal advantage which was doubled inside the last ten minutes, the hosts taking full advantage of a tiring Football Ferns combination to record a convincing scoreline in Guangzhou. It wasn't a winning performance with which new Chinese coach, Elizabeth Loisel, will be too happy, however. Because the hosts played second fiddle to a Football Ferns side which belied its FIFA ranking of 23 by putting a top-ten team under genuine pressure for the bulk of the ninety minutes - a sure sign that it's now a matter of when, not if, these young Kiwi women break through to the next tier in their development. “The girls are dejected after that result, `cause that was their strongest performance yet”, said coach, John Herdman, after the game. “We dominated for long periods. “We've been working hard on the philosophy of changing the game, and have adopted a more attacking approach to utilise our strengths in that area. It's resulted in a new-found confidence in the squad, which was seen in the regularity with which we were stringing passes together - up to fifteen at a time on occasions”. It wasn't difficult to detect the mix of genuine despair and grim defiance in Hayley Moorwood's voice as the captain of the squad on this tour reflected on events afterwards. “That result did not reflect our performance - no way! “We're getting better with every international we play. On this tour, we picked up where we left off after the Women's World Cup Finals, despite not having played together since then - five of us haven't even played since the finals. “So to dominate a top-ten team as we did today, following on from our close 1-0 defeat on Sunday, reflects well on how well we've come together, and on the preparatory work we're doing off the pitch, which is the key to what we do on it”. This country's youngest-ever captain - she was 21 when New Zealand took on Japan

in their only international action in 2005, Moorwood's voice can't hide her pride as she discusses the progress which has been made even in that short timeframe. “I've been representing New Zealand since 2003, and it's great to see, in the game we produced today, where we are at five years on - with girls who can go out and play, while having no fear of their opponents when they take the field. “A few young girls have stepped up and shown that they deserve to be where they are. And with a bit more time together … it's all coming together now, to the extent that we're now focusing on little things in our development. “The biggest of those, of course, is scoring. We've got lots of attacking options, such as Ali Riley and Ria Percival, our overlapping fullbacks, who are a great asset to our play. But at this stage we're not getting on the end of their crosses …” “This tour has been a case of two steps forward overall“, chimes in Herdman, “but today was one step back, in terms of the result. But I`d swap the result for that performance every time, because we can take a lot of positives from that display. And we will”. One high-point  in this, New Zealand's 120th “A” international, was the introduction of Wendi Henderson off the substitute's bench on the hour. In doing so, she made her 60th appearance for New Zealand, equalling the milestone set by fellow Wellingtonian Maureen Jacobson, who has held the record outright since March 1996. Fittingly, the feat was achieved in the final match of the busiest year ever in the history of New Zealand's Football Ferns. All told, they played seventeen international fixtures during 2007, surpassing the previous record of fourteen fixtures played in 1998 by the SWANZ, as the national women's team was then known. Anticipate a similarly active year for the Football Ferns in 2008, with a three-match series in Australia and a home-and-away Olympic qualifying series with Papua New Guinea already in place as John Herdman's charges look to make a return visit to China, this time as part of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games' Committee's squad to represent this country at Beijing 2008. New Zealand:  Bindon; Percival, Jackman (Ray, 70), Erceg, Riley; Humphries (Henderson, 61), Moorwood, McColl, Carmichael (Green, 50); Longo (Duncan, 80), Smith Unused substitute:     Clansey 2007 - 2nd Australian Tour, USA, China