The Football Ferns advanced to the final of the 2010 OFC Women’s Nations Cup at North Harbour Stadium on 6 October, repeating the 8-0 scoreline by which they defeated the Solomon Islands when the nations met at this tournament three years ago in Lae. It was a fitting way to mark New Zealand’s 150th "A" international, and the long-awaited milestone of Maia Jackman’s fiftieth appearance for her country, which saw her donning the captain’s armband to mark this auspicious occasion in her career. The Football Ferns were little troubled by their inexperienced opponents, who were gracing this stage of the competition for the first time in their history. The chasm in class was swiftly defined, the host nation knocking the ball around at will while their rivals set out their stall to keep the scoreline down to respectable proportions. Amber Hearn twice went close - with a header and a rasping twenty yarder - in the first five minutes, before Rosie White opened the scoring by thumping the ball home through a crowded penalty area, after Jackman and Rebecca Smith - "The Twin Towers" were operating in tandem for the first time since the 2007 Women’s World Cup Finals - had been denied by the massed ranks of Solomons’ rearguard from converting a Ria Percival corner. New Zealand followed this up within seconds with a gorgeous move. Smith fed Kirsty Yallop, who turned and sprayed the ball wide for Ali Riley to pursue to the by-line, from where she pulled it back into Hannah Wilkinson’s stride. She controlled the ball then unleashed a volley which Solomons goalkeeper Betty Sade spilled, but was able to recover before White and Hearn could convert the rebound they were racing in to snaffle. Only a vital tackle by Solomons captain Rose Gwali denied Wilkinson in the ninth minute, after Jackman, Katie Hoyle, Yallop and Hearn had combined to good effect, while Hoyle and Riley linked with Yallop three minutes later before the last-mentioned picked out Percival on the far post. The fullback headed narrowly over while, seconds later, Wilkinson headed narrowly across the face of goal after Riley had swooped on the goal-kick and picked out the striker with a pinpoint cross. The Football Ferns were tearing into their work with relish, with Yallop’s off-the-ball run spotted and rewarded by an inch-perfect cross from Hayley Moorwood, whose all-round performance wasn’t up to her usual imperious standards. This delivery was, however, and Yallop’s header crept inches over the bar. Moorwood’s volley over the bar in the fourteenth minute, after Jackman, Hoyle, Yallop and Hearn had carved the Solomons apart with a scintillating interchange of passes, was followed by a slalom run past three opponents by Percival, after she had been released by Hoyle. The overlapping fullback’s resulting cross was controlled by Yallop, who shot straight at Sade. The ‘keeper wasn’t so fortunate in the seventeenth minute, as Percival scored direct from a corner - 2-0. But the scoreline was secondary to the quality of performance, which was at times marred by instances of too many touches of the ball being taken as options were pondered.

This spoilt the fluidity of the Football Ferns’ game. When they employed their quick, incisive passing game, laced with movement aplenty off the ball, the Solomons couldn’t live with Oceania’s reigning champions, and chances galore resulted. Such as in the 24th minute, when Smith sent Percival powering down the right before scything inside and rattling the side-netting. The next raid, two minutes later, saw Riley and Yallop linking on the left, with the latter lashing a stinging twenty yarder narrowly past the far post - it faded a tad too late to find the top far corner. Seconds after, Hoyle and Percival combined to present Jackman with a chance to cross. Hearn sent her resulting header flashing over the crossbar, while the captain delivered another cross seconds later which Wilkinson met with a diving header - this careered past the post. More goals were inevitable, and the game’s third arrived on the half-hour. Swooping on a poor goal-kick, Yallop steered the ball across to Moorwood, who smashed it into the top corner from the edge of the penalty area. 3-0 became 4-0 six minutes later, and a candidate for goal of the game to boot. Jackman, Riley, Hearn, Hoyle and Smith were all involved in a symphony of ball-swapping before Hearn evaded a challenge and thundered home a twenty-five yarder - her eleventh goal of the tournament. And there were more where they came from. Alas, not before the interval, although it wasn’t for the want of trying. A strong run past three players by Wilkinson culminated in Hearn lashing a twenty yarder over the bar, while Wilkinson sent a screamer from the same distance inches over the woodwork after Percival, Hoyle and Moorwood had cast a spell on the Solomons defence as they weaved their way down the right. White had opened the scoring in the half, and was prevented from concluding it two minutes prior to the half-time whistle by a superb Sade save, the ’keeper plunging to her right to see the teams turning round with four goals separating them on the scoreboard. The pattern of play - scintillating interchanges interspersed with stuttering imprecision - continued in the second spell, the first chance of which saw Moorwood unleash a vicious volley goal wards on receipt of a Percival corner. Wilkinson got in the way of the shot, but swiftly improvised to create an opportunity for herself deserving of better fate. Two minutes later, the Football Ferns went nap with a quality strike both in its conception and execution. Moorwood gathered the ball in midfield and sprayed it wide to Riley, who in turn fed Yallop - the former Pali Blues duo are developing a great understanding on the left. The midfielder clipped in a cross which found half-time substitute Sarah Gregorius racing in off the right. She met the ball with a first-time cushioned volley, deftly steering the ball across the wrong-footed Sade and in by the post - a lovely goal. Yallop was marauding down the left again five minutes later, Wilkinson and White the beneficiaries of her charge. The latter rattled the crossbar with a shot which the Solomons scrambled to seeming safety, although the way Percival has been taking corners during this tournament …

She delivered another peach here, picking out Yallop in the goalmouth. Sade somehow kept her out at point-blank range, and the goalkeeper’s team-mates came to her aid in thwarting other efforts before Wilkinson battered a shot on the turn over the bar. The Football Ferns continued to pile on the pressure, with Percival’s control of a cross-field pass from Yallop exquisite in the 59th minute. She then set up Jackman to deliver a hanging cross which, had the sun been lower in the sky, Sade would have had the devil’s own job seeing. As it was, she struggled with it, pawing the ball out from beneath the bar. The game’s sixth goal arrived on the hour. Another spell-binding interchange of passes culminated in Percival piercing the Solomons’ left flank once more before picking out Wilkinson with a cross which the striker, arriving late in the penalty area, sent flying past Sade with a bullet header. After Yallop and Hearn had warmed Sade’s gloves, Percival and Riley combined, with the latter working a one-two with Jackman before feeding White in the 68th minute. Her low cross saw Gregorius arriving on cue to guide the ball beyond Sade - 7-0. Two minutes later, the hosts deserved better fate after another cracking move. Riley and Jackman combined, but it was the standing up of her defender which made Gregorius’ contribution to the move its most incisive. White received her cross and saw her piledriver ricochet off Moorwood to Yallop, who rattled the post from the rebound. Another avalanche of opportunities to bolster the scoreline followed over the course of the next fifteen minutes, during which Sade twice thwarted substitute Emma Kete after Gregorius-led raids. Other attacks saw the ball careering past or over the uprights at regular intervals, with Hearn, Yallop, White, Kete and half-time substitute Kristy Hill all going close on multiple occasions. An eighth goal simply had to come, and after Moorwood had seen a shot blocked by Audrey Galo, it did so four minutes from time. The strike owed much to Percival, who chased and retrieved a seemingly lost cause before Yallop assumed command of the operation, only to see her effort blocked. That from White hit nothin’ but net - 8-0. Eight proved enough for the Football Ferns as the team marked Jackman’s 50th cap with a fitting victory, and the game in New Zealand celebrated this milestone fixture in its history, a shade over 35 years since a 2-0 win over Hong Kong began this roller-coaster ride. The next engagement is a clash with Papua New Guinea in the 2010 OFC Women’s Nations Cup Final from 4pm on Friday, with the reward for the victors a trip to Germany 2011 as Oceania’s representatives at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals. Football Ferns:     Bindon; Percival, Jackman, Smith (Hill, 46), Riley; Moorwood, Hoyle (Gregorius, 46), Yallop; White, Hearn, Wilkinson (Kete, 63) Solomon Islands:     Sade; Zoze, Galo, Gwali (booked, 55), Masae (Donga, 74); Pegi, Maenu’u (Olomane, 65), Asibara (booked, 89), Misibini; Tolivaka, Fula (Saepio, 63) Referee:          Tupou Patia (Cook Islands)