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15/05/16
Three Kings Inflict Record Home Defeat On Old Foe
by Jeremy Ruane
Three Kings United continued on their winning way at the top of the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League on May 15, humbling Lynn-Avon United 8-0 in a one-sided "Old Firm" derby at Ken Maunder Park to set a new record for the heaviest defeat Lynn-Avon have suffered on home soil.
Until today, seven goals was the most goals the Ken Maunder Park club had conceded on home soil, but Three Kings set about the task of rewriting history as early as the sixth minute, when Hannah Blake hammered home a twenty-five yarder to open the scoring.
The visitors were quickly into their work, Hannah Wall - her first start for the season - seamlessly slotting into a side which is hell-bent on winning the league for the first time since 2007.
They are certainly going about it in eye-catching fashion, as was evident in the thirteenth minute, when Caitlin Pritchard brought the ball out of defence before unleashing Paige Satchell on one of her mazy runs past two or three opponents prior to linking with Martine Puketapu.
Her delightful cushioned lay-off was tailor-made for Tessa Leong to lash goalwards, but she directed her effort straight at Storm Buckingham, who had a fine game twixt the sticks for Lynn-Avon, despite what the scoreline suggests.
She was next called upon two minutes later, blocking a Blake effort after Satchell had swooped on a stray pass from Brooke Hawker had raced past three opponents down the right before flighting a perfectly weighted cross to the far post, where the game's opening goalscorer was arriving on cue in a bid to double her tally.
Sophie Stewart-Hobbs' bursts out of defence are another feature of Three Kings' play, and the bubbly fullback left two players in her wake before playing in Leong with just the 'keeper to beat in the sixteenth minute. Buckingham prevailed, saving well to turn the ball round the far post.
Four minutes later, Alosi Bloomfield, who was playing against her old club for the first time, surged through the midfield before linking with Leong, whose first-time pass sent Puketapu racing towards goal.
Buckingham blocked well at her feet, but the danger remained, for within seconds, the league's leading markswoman was in possession on the left. Puketapu promptly flighted a cross into the stride of Isabella Richards, who sent an angled twelve yard header soaring beyond Buckingham to give Three Kings a 2-0 lead.
Such was the league leaders' speed of thought and movement that it seemed at times as if Buckingham was all that stood between Lynn-Avon being on the wrong end of a right royal hiding, no matter how hard those in front of her were trying to stop Three Kings' progress.
Inside the next eight minutes, the 'keeper nonchalantly plucked a thirty yard rocket from Puketapu out of the air, then saved at the feet of the same player after Stewart-Hobbs and Richards had opened up Lynn-Avon's left flank.
Pritchard, Puketapu and Richards then combined to present Blake with an opportunity which Buckingham saved at the second attempt, but the 'keeper was beaten all ends up by Puketapu in the 29th minute, the striker steering home via the far upright after Stewart-Hobbs' run from deep went unchallenged, the fullback linking with Richards before Puketapu was played through with just the 'keeper to beat.
Straight from the kick-off, Lynn-Avon yielded possession, and Blake raced away down the left past three before sending a low cross careering across the face of goal. Racing in to meet it on the far post was Satchell, who, with Buckingham closing fast, slammed the ball home high inside the near post to make it 4-0.
Four minutes later, goal number five materialised. Richards fed Satchell, who showed Georgia Webster a clean pair of heels before scything between two more opponents and feeding Puketapu with a pass which allowed her to turn Maia Jackman then thrash
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 Hannah Wall (TKU)
 Storm Buckingham (LAU)
 Sophie Stewart-Hobbs (TKU)
 Martine Puketapu (TKU)
 Isabella Richards (TKU)
 Maia Jackman (LAU)
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the ball home under the advancing figure of Buckingham.
Three Kings were relentless. In the 37th minute, Leong was felled by Georgia Martin in the penalty area, a foul which earned Lynn-Avon's captain a booking and - after much indecision about who should do the honours - presented Puketapu with the perfect chance to complete an eight-minute hat-trick.
Her shot was good, but the save Buckingham produced as she plunged low to her right was right out of the top drawer, the 'keeper tipping the ball round the post for the first of two Hannah Robert corners in four minutes.
Wall was the recipient on both occasions, and while her flying attempt narrowly cleared the crossbar in the 38th minute, it served as a range-finder for the gifted international, who met Robert's next delivery with a towering header which crashed into the back of the net four minutes before half-time - 6-0.
And so nearly a seventh goal seconds later, Satchell's twenty-five yard grasscutter sizzling narrowly past Buckingham's left-hand post as Three Kings kept the pedal to the metal.
The half-time whistle simply couldn't come soon enough for Lynn-Avon, who had Lucy Carter making her debut for the side - the former Auckland rep must have wondered what on earth she'd got herself into after enduring the best part of forty-five minutes' worth of Three Kings at full throttle.
As things panned out, the half-time whistle was the last thing the visitors needed. They struggled to rediscover their rhythm in the second spell, Leong firing their first shot in anger over the bar in the 57th minute following a penetrating run down the left by Blake.
Richards followed suit eight minutes later, having linked with Puketapu, Leong and Satchell in the build-up to her shot. Then it was Blake's turn, her finish of the high, wide and far from handsome variety after half-time substitute Mei Morton combined with Satchell and Puketapu to open Lynn-Avon's defence in the 67th minute.
Sixty seconds later, Three Kings made it 7-0, Morton's shot deflecting off Martin and looping over the stranded figure of Buckingham after Satchell had raced down the right in pursuit of a seemingly lost cause and succeeded in pulling it back from the by-line for her team-mate's benefit.
That sparked a revival of the visitors' attacking inter-play, with Blake directing a glancing header from Wall's fine angled ball to the far post before Satchell's chip drifted just past the same upright nineteen minutes from time.
Leong and the overlapping Stewart-Hobbs combined to set up Blake for a one-on-one opportunity seconds later, but Buckingham proved equal to both this and a Satchell piledriver moments later, as Three Kings rediscovered their first half fizz.
Buckingham was to produce one more outstanding save in this encounter, a one-handed denial at full stretch to deny Stewart-Hobbs what would have been a deserved goal for the lively fullback, who latched onto a loose ball following a cleared corner then took on and beat four opponents before letting fly twelve minutes from time.
Two minutes later, the shooter sparked a move which also saw contributions from Satchell, Leong, Morton and Richards before Puketapu picked out the top corner of the net from ten yards to wrap up her hat-trick and the scoring, an 8-0 win for the table-toppers which, in truth, should have been greater, such was their dominance and creativity, but wasn't due to their profligacy and the brilliance of Buckingham.
Lynn-Avon: Buckingham; Mahar, Jackman, Martin, Uluvili; Murray, Webster (Storer, 62), Carter, Inwood; Boyes, Hawker
Three Kings: Rolls; Stewart-Hobbs (Philpot, 83), Pritchard, Wall, Robert; Richards, Leong, Bloomfield (Morton, 46); Satchell (Hindson, 83), Puketapu, Blake
Referee: Jordan Morrow
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