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10/09/06
The Nation's Finest Serve Up End-Of-Season Thriller
by Jeremy Ruane
Lynn-Avon United and Three Kings United served up an end-of-season Northern Premier Women's League thriller at Ken Maunder Park on September 10, the home team coming from behind to prevail 3-2 in an at times technically brilliant encounter, the winning goal coming in stoppage time.
Despite the championship having been decided - Lynn-Avon's midweek stumble allowed Three Kings to claim the silverware, the quality of football on show was right off the top shelf as these long-time rivals locked horns for the fortieth time in fourteen seasons of league and knockout action, the rain-slicked conditions adding a further dimension to an end-to-end spectacle watched by 250 people.
Debutant Premier Women's League referee Mark Vincent, stepping up after another Northern Premier League campaign, couldn't have wished for a better introduction to senior level women's football - and it's a fair bet he's never refereed a club fixture in which twenty capped New Zealand internationals at senior or age-grade level have been on the park come kick-off time.
A twenty-first was denied the opportunity after coming off second-best in a freakish encounter with a divot! It's just as well Three Kings' striker Zoe Thompson had already scored the goals which secured her the league's Top Goalscorer trophy, as she would have been the epitome of frustration had the ankle injury she suffered in the pre-match kick-in ruined her chances of doing so.
Instead, she got to watch this rip-roaring encounter unfold from the dugout, Sarah Gibbs taking her place in a rejigged Three Kings' line-up featuring a lone striker in Emma Kete. While the visitors got to grips with the changes to their plans, Lynn-Avon looked to capitalise early, Terry McCahill's fourth minute header from a Dana Humby corner being gratefully grabbed by Jenny Bindon.
Three Kings settled, and in the fourteenth minute engineered an opening through the initiative of Kristy Hill - an outstanding display in central midfield. She spread the ball wide to Kete, who cut inside before lofting a cross into the penalty area. Over the head of Merissa Smith the ball arced, dropping perfectly for the fast-arriving Annalie Longo. Her shot arrowed over the crossbar.
Kirsty Yallop showed her NZ U-20 team-mate how to do it two minutes later. Sarah Gregorius and Sam Selwyn combined to supply the national age-grade captain with the ball, and she engineered some space for herself before letting fly with a rasping drive from twenty-five yards. The ball flew over the diving Bindon, crashed against the underside of the crossbar and bounced down then up into the roof of the net.
The newly-crowned champions weren't going to take this setback lying down, given they began this match just ninety minutes away from recording an unbeaten league season. Rebecca Sowden led the charge - her game-long tussle with Yallop was one of the battles within the battle.
The visitors' midfielder won this encounter, releasing Smith down the right with a measured pass which the speedster turned into a dangerous cross-shot which had Stephanie Puckrin scrambling across her goal.
Back came Lynn-Avon, slips by Gibbs and Jackman allowing Gregorius, Selwyn and Yallop to combine again. The last-mentioned strode into the penalty area where she found herself on the wrong end of a desperate tackle from Abby Erceg. With the referee unsighted, the defender got away with it, Bindon swiftly smothered the remaining danger.
Cue another Three Kings raid, this time with scoreboard-changing consequences. A super-slick interchange of passes in the 24th minute saw Smith, Petria Rennie, Hill and Longo combine, the last-mentioned slipping the ball inside for Kete, some fifteen yards out. Her deflected drive slithered under the diving figure of Puckrin to level the scores - game on!
Was it ever!! Neither of these well-matched teams let up in the remainder of the half, both conjuring up enterprising attacks at will only to be foiled by some outstanding defensive work - a combination of no-nonsense tackling, well-anticipated interceptions and instinctive positioning.
Even by their lofty standards, some of the football Lynn-Avon and Three Kings produced in the first forty-five minutes of this match was as good as it gets. And having seen just about every match in this rivalry since its inception in 1993, this writer should know!
The home team had two opportunities to break the deadlock before the half-time whistle. On the half-hour, Yallop sent Ria Percival scampering down the right, from where she drilled a cross onto the head of Selwyn. The striker couldn't get her head round the ball on this occasion, the ricochet flying off the close-at-hand Gregorius into the hands of Bindon.
The goalkeeper looked on five minutes later, as Yallop put Gregorius through on goal. But she wasn't able to unleash a shot once inside the penalty area due to a ball-and-all tackle from Jackman, who generally trod a fine line when it came to testing the limits imposed by the game's Laws in her challenges throughout this match, eventually committing one infringement too many ten minutes from time to earn a yellow card.
With the showers and drizzle having abated during the half-time break, the second half carried on from where the first half concluded - both teams at it hammer and tongs in search of what was proving to be an elusive goal.
Three Kings began the half brightly, Puckrin forced into a fine blocking save at the feet of Kete in the 49th minute, after Lynn-Avon had failed to clear Sowden's corner. But within three minutes, the home
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 Kristy Hill (TKU) tackles Kirsty Yallop (LAU)
 Dana Humby (LAU) heads clear, watched by Melissa Ray (LAU) and Merissa Smith (TKU)
 Sarah Gibbs (TKU) scoots clear of Ria Percival (LAU)
 Petria Rennie (TKU) shadowed by Sam Selwyn (LAU)
 A grounded Stephanie Puckrin (LAU) thwarts Emma Kete (14, TKU) as colleagues of both look on
 She went that-a-way! Rebecca Sowden (TKU) outsmarts Kirsty Yallop (LAU) with a swift turn
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team were denied strong penalty claims after the ever-industrious Katie Hoyle had sent Gregorius through Three Kings' offside trap.
Bindon raced off her line and produced a remarkable stop to foil the striker's attempted lob, the ball ricocheting off the goalkeeper and against the hand of the retreating figure of Erceg. Bindon grabbed the ball straight away, and referee Vincent, who had a perfect view of the incident, deemed there was no intention in Erceg's actions.
Back came the visitors, Jackman and Rennie combining on the right, the fullback - another to excel in this match - just gathering the ball on the touchline before scampering away to link with Longo and Sowden. Their interchange presented Smith with a shooting chance from twenty-five yards which sizzled over the bar.
Rennie and Smith then teamed up with a delightful one-two which allowed the overlapping fullback the chance to curl one over for Kete to capitalise on. The striker never got the chance, however, Puckrin's anticipation seeing the `keeper pluck the ball from the sky as if it were a plum dangling enticingly from a tree.
Two minutes later, drama aplenty, as Melissa Ray cleared Lynn-Avon's lines following a Sowden corner. But referee Vincent saw something few others did immediately prior to the defender's actions - a handball offence against Jenny Carlisle.
The supposed perpetrator later said the ball struck her hip, not her hand, but in the heat of battle, Lynn-Avon's protests were led by Yallop, whose high-pitched beseeching of the official saw him wield the game's first yellow card. Worse was to come for the NZ U-20s captain and her colleagues, as Sowden slammed home the 65th minute penalty to give Three Kings the lead, 2-1.
Six minutes later, they came close to building on their new-found advantage. Smith dashed past two opponents down the right before whipping in a cross for Kete, who got herself in between Humby and Ray. But the striker was denied the shot she sought thanks to the former's despairing lunge, a corner a far more acceptable option to the defender than the sight of Puckrin being tested.
Cue Sowden's set-piece, and after Hill and McCahill had engaged in aerial combat, Puckrin punched the ball off the head of Jackman, only to return possession to Sowden. Her driven low cross through a crowded penalty area caught Erceg by surprise, the defender's snatched effort clearing the crossbar.
It was after this that Lynn-Avon began to up the ante, the tiring figures of Hassett and Kete enabling the outgoing champions to press on in search of an equaliser. The extra pressure forced Three Kings - Jackman in particular - into conceding a string of fouls, and after the visitors' captain had been booked for an ill-timed lunge on Gregorius twenty-five yards out from goal, Lynn-Avon struck.
Humby battered the free-kick low past the wall, but Bindon got down to block it. Before she could recover, however, Ray swooped to head home the rebound - 2-2.
Now it was all on for young and old, and no holds barred in the process. Smith sent Carlisle tumbling in the penalty area six minutes from time, but nothing was forthcoming. Soon after, both Yallop and Sowden chanced their arm from distance, the former's free-kick from thirty yards the closer of the two long-range attempts.
Into stoppage time we went, Percival prowling with purpose down the right. Gibbs blocked her path, so she turned and looked up to see Humby storming forward in support. A measured pass allowed the fullback to deliver a slide-rule ball into the feet of Yallop, just inside the penalty area with her back to goal and Jackman in close attendance.
Cue a moment of magic from the midfielder, who turned her opponent superbly to create the space from which she fair smashed the ball goalwards. Her rising drive beat Bindon and crashed into the net off the underside of the crossbar - 3-2 Lynn-Avon, with time all but up on the clock.
Enough time for Three Kings to mount a last attack, however, and Sowden and Longo duly launched it. The latter played the ball wide to Smith, who let fly with a rasping drive which cannoned off Carlisle for a corner.
But there was no time to take it, referee Vincent's final whistle met with delight by Lynn-Avon and despair by their opponents, beaten for the first and last time in the league this season. But while Three Kings were understandably disappointed in defeat, the new Premier Women's League champions were soon in more cheerful mood, after captain Jackman finally got her hands on the league trophy she last held in 1999.
Indeed, that year was the last time both these teams had something to celebrate following their season's endeavours. And after a campaign in which both clubs have contributed immensely to the competitive nature of the league, and, just as significantly, to New Zealand's impressive results over the course of Project Russia, it is somehow fitting that they share women's soccer's spoils once more, while concluding the 2006 club season in such a marvellous manner - the quite splendid advertisement for the women's game which this thrilling season-ending finale unquestionably was.
Lynn-Avon: Puckrin; Humby, McCahill, Ray, Robertson; Percival, Hoyle, Carlisle, Yallop (booked, 64); Gregorius, Selwyn (Doubleday, 69)
Three Kings: Bindon; Rennie, Jackman (booked, 80), Erceg, Gibbs; Smith, Longo, Hill, Sowden, Hassett (Cox, 74); Kete
Referee: Mark Vincent
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