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10/08/03
Defending Champs Give Three Kings A Footballing Lesson
by Jeremy Ruane
Defending Northern Premier Women’s League champions Lynn-Avon United all but assured themselves of a fourth consecutive title in the competition when handing out a forty-five minute footballing lesson to Three Kings United at Keith Hay Park on August 10.
With nearest rivals Ellerslie enduring the bye, this match marked Lynn-Avon’s chance to skip six points clear at the top of the table, and they took it in emphatic fashion, recording the biggest win in the league this season in the process.
10-0 was the outcome, with eight of the goals coming in the first half, and five of that octet materialising in a spell-binding eight minutes midway through the half. Three Kings hadn’t a prayer, such was the quality of football displayed by the Uncle Toby’s Women’s Knockout Cup holders.
It was a far cry from the competitive encounters Lynn-Avon have played at this venue against the likes of the all-conquering Three Kings teams sporting the likes of Michele Cox, Pernille Andersen, Jennifer Kelley and Amy Goaziou, that’s for sure.
Sara Clapham started the rout, hooking home superbly in the seventh minute after Jill Gilmore’s mesmerising ball forward down the right presented Michele Keinzley with a chance to cross to the near post.
After Keinzley had sent an angled drive fizzing across the face of goal, and Clapham had shot at Wendy Horneman, Lynn-Avon’s goal blitz began with a vengeance in the nineteenth minute.
Yvonne Vale clipped the ball forward to Kirsty Yallop, who read the bounce well, unlike her marker, Jo Barnett. With three yards in her back pocket, Yallop galloped forward before slipping a measured pass through for Clapham. After evading a challenge, the striker stroked the ball across the out-of-position Horneman into the far corner of the net.
2-0 became 3-0 within sixty seconds. A slide-rule right-to-left pass by Clapham rewarded Yallop’s fine run off the ball, and the sixteen-year-old raced into the penalty area after evading a challenge. Horneman blocked her shot, but Hayley Moorwood, following up, was on hand to steer home the rebound.
With Three Kings reeling, Lynn-Avon pressed again, and in the 23rd minute, the hard-working Hannah Rishworth gifted possession to Moorwood on the edge of the penalty area. The midfielder ghosted past her opponent before crossing for Clapham to guide home her hat-trick goal with her head.
Goal number five materialised in the 26th minute, and came about after Terry McCahill had blocked Lacey Parsons’ attempt to get the home team moving in the right direction once again. Clapham picked up the pieces, and laid the ball into Moorwood’s path. Cue an exquisite curling finish which rendered Horneman helpless.
Within seconds, the visitors had notched a sixth goal, with Clapham again involved. This time, she played a lovely pass into the path of Keinzley, who evaded a challenge before unleashing a shot which took a wicked deflection en route to the back of the net, former SWANZ Under-19 goalkeeper Horneman having had the original effort covered.
Lynn-Avon were rampant by this time, with McCahill denied by the post as she soared high to head a Clapham cross goalwards in the 32nd minute. Four minutes later came goal number seven, Clapham producing a fine ball forward to reward the intelligent off-the-ball running of Moorwood.
The SWANZ international jinked past an opponent before bewildering Horneman with a curling, dipping effort. The crossbar came to the ‘keeper’s aid, only for Yallop to earn due reward for following in as she cracked the rebound into the top corner of the net.
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Clapham then spurned two chances to increase her chances of edging out Eastern Suburbs’ Rebecca Tegg in the Golden Boot stakes - the league’s leading goalscorer has played her last game this season, due to an eye injury - before netting her fourth goal of the game on the stroke of half-time, evading a challenge on the right before rattling home her fifteenth league goal of the campaign in ferocious fashion.
After such an imperious first half display, it was understandable that Lynn-Avon failed to kick on during the second spell, though it wasn’t for the want of trying. Abby Erceg cleared off the line from Rebecca Parkinson, while Clapham stabbed a ten-yard shot wide of the mark after an enormous run forward by McCahill - when was the last time Lynn-Avon’s captain got to the opponents’ byline in open play?
McCahill gained due reward for her attacking tendencies soon after, rattling home Lynn-Avon’s ninth goal of the day in the 58th minute - and her fiftieth in the eleven-year history of this particular team - after Parkinson’s corner had been flicked on by Clapham.
Seconds later, Keinzley was denied by the legs of Horneman after a breathtakingly quick counter-attack saw the ball flow through Jennifer Carlisle, the industrious Nicky Vincent and Gilmore to the attack-minded SWANZ star. Then both Dana Heiford and Parkinson went close after Moorwood had carved open Three Kings’ defence on the right, with Keinzley’s assistance.
After Clapham had contrived to fire over from three yards following more Moorwood magic on the right, and a fine crossfield ball from Heiford which released her team-mate, Horneman produced an absolutely stunning one-handed save to thwart Moorwood in the 76th minute, after the midfielder unleashed a twenty-yard drive which was bound for the top corner.
To their credit, Three Kings engineered a couple of openings in the second spell, but found the greater experience of their title-chasing opposition to be a hurdle they hadn’t anticipated having to leap.
The generally inactive Vale saved solidly at the feet of Ann Ormrod in the 56th minute, while after Elina Tito had fired over the bar following a 69th minute raid inspired by her pacy team-mate, the home team were denied by a stunning piece of defending from Carlisle in the 73rd minute.
Ormrod had raced clear once more, and lured McCahill and Vale towards her, before slipping the ball into Tito’s path. United’s captain looked odds-on to score, but Carlisle appeared from nowhere to deny her in the act of shooting. The ball landed kindly for Ormrod, only for McCahill to intervene and clear the home team’s last chance to safety.
Lynn-Avon weren’t to be denied a tenth goal, however, but only after Horneman had saved from Keinzley, who then saw all her hard work go to waste when steering the ball across to where Clapham should have been had the striker continued her supporting run in the 86th minute.
Fittingly, it was Clapham who had the final say on the scoreboard, pouncing on an error by Amelia Wong, who allowed a Keinzley cross to somehow creep under her foot to the waiting goal-poacher, who gleefully accepted the invitation to net her fifth goal of the game, and leave Lynn-Avon six points clear, and with a vastly superior goal difference compared with Ellerslie, their only realistic title threat with the season now in its final month.
Three Kings: Horneman; Barnett, Dale, Rishworth, Wong; Ropati, Tito, Butler, G. Vincent (Erceg), Ormrod; Parsons (Knor)
Lynn-Avon: Vale; Gilmore, McCahill, Carlisle; Keinzley, Moorwood, Heiford, Hearn (N. Vincent), Yallop; Clapham, Parkinson
Referee: Graham Whitford
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