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09/09/09
Lynn-Avon Score Deserved League Triumph
by Jeremy Ruane
Lynn-Avon United scored a thoroughly deserved 4-1 triumph over Three Kings United at Albie Turner Field on September 9, coming from behind to win the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League Grand Final and clinch their first league title since 2005.
In front of a 500-strong crowd - a terrific turn-out for this latest encounter in a rivalry with no equal in NZ women's football - the teams matched each other stride for stride throughout the first fifteen minutes, the first threat on goal materialising soon afterwards, when Briony Fisher's cross was neatly controlled by Amber Hearn, whose eighteen yard volley sizzled a yard over the crossbar.
Three Kings responded with the opening goal of the game in the nineteenth minute. Anna Green whipped in a vicious corner from the right which the Lynn-Avon defence failed to deal with, and while Katie Hoyle - outstanding throughout - thwarted the similarly impressive Rosie White by blocking her shot on the line, Lauren Murray was like a fox in a henhouse as she swooped on the loose ball and smashed it home.
Lynn-Avon looked to respond fairly promptly, Hoyle thrashing a shot through a crowded goalmouth narrowly past the post five minutes later following a corner from Caitlin Campbell, whose free-kick in the 26th minute was greedily grabbed by Aroon Clansey.
Three Kings' `keeper hoisted the ball downfield, with Nadia Pearl turning it into the path of Maia Jackman, who rampaged down the right. Liz Milne was completely wrong-footed by the 2007 FIFA Women's World All-Stars squad member, whose fierce drive was fumbled by Ashleigh Cox. Before White could pounce on the rebound, Melissa Ray came to her `keeper's rescue with a timely clearance.
The incident which most influenced the match occurred eleven minutes before half-time. Three Kings were already without the services of injured duo Annalie Longo and Tessa Berger, and when Abby Erceg went down with a twisted ankle after landing awkwardly following a collision with her captain, Kristy Hill, their resources were stretched to breaking point.
Before Lynn-Avon could exploit the vulnerability in their rivals' rearguard, their own back-line was put to the test by the dynamic figure of White, who gathered the ball on half-way and evaded a couple of challenges before threading a pass through to the charging Leah Tagaloa.
She shot past both Ray and Dana Humby to draw another parried save from Cox, but with Murray moving in for the kill, Briony Fisher came careering in to produce a vital tackle which thwarted a certain goal in the 36th minute.
Two minutes later, Lynn-Avon were level. Hill, who had a fine game despite the odd blemish, was caught out of position on this occasion as she looked to compensate for the absence of Erceg.
It allowed Emily Cooper the chance to play the ball wide to Ria Percival, who had Hearn and Sarah Gregorius as potential targets in the middle for a cross. There was a third option, and it proved successful, with Clansey failing to deal with the teasing cross-shot as it arced over her head and under the bar.
Percival's delight contrasted starkly with Clansey's despair, and the goalkeeper was even more despondent a minute before half-time, as her nemesis beat her a second time to put Lynn-Avon in front.
Hearn was out on the left flank when she picked up
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the pieces following an aerial duel between Campbell and Jackman, and promptly played the ball down the line for Gregorius to pursue.
Erceg's replacement, Jamie Osbourne, was well placed to deal with the threat, and duly played the ball back towards Clansey, who was well out of goal anticipating the back-pass.
It never reached her, a result of Gregorius pouncing on the pass and playing the ball across for anyone in a red shirt to fire into the empty net. Hill was racing back to try to clear the danger, but Percival was always a step ahead of her - 2-1.
It was a blow from which Three Kings never recovered, not that Lynn-Avon gave them many opportunities to do so. The league title is highly coveted at Ken Maunder Park, and after winning it for the first six years of this century, its absence from their trophy cabinet since that last triumph in 2005 was something they badly wanted to put to rights on this occasion - that hunger was now very much in evidence.
Cooper went close with a twenty-five yarder on the stroke of half-time, while five minutes after the resumption, a dangerous cross from Hearn further exposed the fragility at the heart of Three Kings' rearguard, Clansey eventually retrieving the situation after youngster Osbourne had been left in two minds by Gregorius' close attendance.
Three Kings coach Andrew Clay had experienced alternatives to employ alongside Hill, such as Jackman, Michele Hogg and Hannah Rishworth, but by the time he did shuffle the pack, the destiny of the silverware had long been determined.
In the 51st minute, Hearn's exquisite touch put Percival in with just Clansey to beat. But as she pulled the trigger to complete what would have been a thirteen-minute hat-trick, Pearl's despairing lunge diverted the goal-bound shot beyond the diving Clansey and against the post.
Three minutes later, Lynn-Avon extended their advantage. Hoyle cut out a probing pass from Green, and instantly sent Gregorius scurrying away down the right, with Hill in hot pursuit. The defender dived in, but the striker skipped over her tackle and swept the ball into the goalmouth.
Osbourne headed it clear, but only as far as Cooper, whose unerring twenty-yarder sailed past Clansey high into the net - 3-1, and surely now, no way back for Three Kings.
The Oceania Women's Player of the Year put her heart and soul into attempting to stem the tide, but White's valiant efforts alone weren't enough to retrieve the situation for the only team to inflict defeat upon Lynn-Avon in 2009.
Instead, it was the league champions-in-waiting who appeared the more likely to alter the scoreline again. Before the hour, Clansey grabbed a Gregorius header following Fisher's hooked cross, while the 2008 Young Ferns captain headed narrowly past the far post on receipt of a deep corner from Campbell.
In the 61st minute, Hoyle sent Campbell careering down the left, where she took on and beat Osbourne before picking out the fast-arriving figure of Percival on the far post. The hat-trick hunter was this time frustrated by Clansey's outstretched leg.
It was almost a carbon copy three minutes later, as Hoyle released Campbell down the left again, and Osbourne was once again left wondering which way she'd gone. This time, Campbell went for goal herself - a thumping twenty-five-yarder hurtled narrowly over the bar.
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Three Kings finally looked to change things at the back five minutes later with the introduction of substitute Stephanie Eaton, who entered the fray armed with some written instructions to pass onto Hill.
Three Kings' captain barely glanced at the page before throwing it away
cue the comical sight of Gregorius cheekily picking up the folded note and reading it before asking her coach, Dene Gilmore, if he was interested in the contents! It's a cure for cancer! claimed Clay. Priceless!!
Lynn-Avon continued to press, Fisher's probing ball forward seemingly a lost cause until Percival appeared on Osbourne's blind side as she shepherded the ball back to Clansey. The United Soccer League's W-League Defender of the Year finalist promptly rattled the outside of the post with a swerving drive eighteen minutes from time.
Seconds later, Gregorius should have at least hit the target after scurrying into the penalty area, her final act of note before being carried from the park eight minutes from time after a collision with Hill left the usually robust striker prone and in plenty of pain.
Before that incident, Three Kings earned a rare corner, which Pearl curled into the goalmouth. Cox pawed it out from under the crossbar, but it was clear from the half-way line and beyond that the net clearly rippled, suggesting that the `keeper's efforts had been in vain.
Referee's assistant Ben Norman made no indication that the ball had crossed the line, however, and the telling absence of claims for a goal from the attacking team - generally a good barometer in such circumstances - indicated that it was Cox's hand, and not the ball, which had caused the rippling effect fifteen minutes from time.
Three minutes later, Percival latched onto a Cox clearance and checked inside Osbourne before uncorking a curler which Clansey clawed from the sky. Three Kings' `keeper had to have her wits about her after Gregorius' departure, too, because she had to deny Campbell at close quarters following a defensive mix-up from the resumption of play.
The title was now in the bag, the Keith Hay Homes Cup set to sit alongside the Minor Women's Premiers trophy in the Ken Maunder Park trophy cabinet this summer. But the Grand Final was to finish with a final flourish, a stoppage time goal for the National Women's Knockout Cup finalists.
Campbell whipped in a corner to the far post which saw the captains clash in the air, and referee Andrew Caie pointing to the penalty spot as a result. Ray copped a beauty, high on her cheek, from Hill's flailing arm in this altercation, an offence which earned the beaten skipper a yellow card.
And Lynn-Avon a penalty. Campbell picked up the ball initially, but with Percival itching to complete her hat-trick, it was apt that she was afforded the chance to do so. She did not disappoint, capping off in fitting fashion an emphatic 4-1 triumph for Lynn-Avon United, deserving champions based not just on their performance in this match, but over the entire campaign.
Three Kings: Clansey; Jackman, Hill (booked, 90), Erceg (Osbourne, 34), Green; Pearl, Rishworth, White, Hogg (Eaton, 69); Tagaloa, Murray
Lynn-Avon: Cox; Fisher, Humby, Ray, Milne (Doubleday, 90); Percival, Hoyle, Cooper, Campbell; Hearn (Selwyn, 69), Gregorius (Head, 83)
Referee: Andrew Caie
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