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16/07/06
As Comprehensive As It Gets
by Jeremy Ruane
It speaks volumes for the quality of performance produced by both teams that the tie of the round in the SWANZ Knockout Cup quarter-finals on July 16 could have seen cup holders Lynn-Avon United win by at least double the 3-0 margin by which they triumphed over their arch-rivals, Three Kings United, at Ken Maunder Park.
Where Lynn-Avon were commanding, Three Kings were contemptible - what a stark contrast to the last encounter between these two great rivals, a day when Three Kings dictated terms to conclude the last unbeaten run of league matches amassed by the title-holders.
This match offered the visitors the chance to bring to an end the longest winning run - twenty-three games - in SWANZ Cup history, but Lynn-Avon had no intention of bowing to their rivals this time. They were still smarting from that last defeat, and this match represented the chance to extract sweet revenge.
They were quick to set out their stall to do so, but only after Three Kings had fired the first shot in anger, straight from the kick-off. Maia Jackman picked out Merissa Smith with a cross-field ball which the young speedster fired wide of the mark. Game on!
Lynn-Avon responded with an early spell of possession in which the midfield triumverate of Katie Hoyle, Hayley Moorwood and Kirsty Yallop were highly prominent - a sign of things to come.
So, too, the pace of Sarah Gregorius, as she responded to the promptings of her team-mates by regularly running at a Three Kings rearguard featuring her U-20 international team-mates Hannah Rishworth, Hannah Bromley, Abby Erceg and the well-performed Petria Rennie.
The home team had another weapon in their armoury in the form of Dana Humby, who transferred from Three Kings during the summer and would have done so earlier but for that daft ruling regarding NZ women's internationals' limited involvement in club football in 2005.
She has only recently come back from a lengthy injury, and missed the 3-1 defeat earlier in the campaign. When this tie was drawn, it represented Humby's first chance to take out her frustrations on her old club, and with her set-piece prowess at the ready, the New Zealand international chanced her arm whenever the opportunity presented itself, such as in the sixth minute.
Humby's free-kick picked out the head of Gregorius, but Jenny Bindon was right behind this effort, as she was another attempt from the speedy striker eight minutes later, this a shot under pressure from Bromley after Humby's ball forward had been flicked on by Rebecca Parkinson.
Three minutes later, another Humby free-kick saw Lynn-Avon take the lead. From out near the right-hand touchline, she arced in a wicked delivery which deceived Bindon and cannoned off the far post into the goalmouth and the path of the prowling figure of Yallop … away she wheeled in delight, to be quickly engulfed by her team-mates.
Three Kings were stunned, and their attempts to draw level proved fruitless, a combination of their great reliance on the through ball to exploit their pacy attackers, and a splendid defensive display by Lynn-Avon.
With Melissa Ray and Terry McCahill controlling the ebb and flow of the home team's back-line movements, they denied the visitors' attack the space in which to exploit their speed advantage, and at the same time exposed a lack of guile in Three Kings' attacking play with which they took quite some time to come to terms - far too long in as important a match as this one, that's for sure.
Indeed, but for Smith's effort after fifteen seconds, and a Rebecca Sowden free-kick which whizzed past the post in the tenth minute after Stephanie Puckrin had been pulled up for the rarely-applied six-seconds ruling, they struggled to produce anything of consequence in front of goal throughout the entire first half.
Apart from a tame effort from Emma Kete in the 36th minute, and another raid four minutes earlier which featured Rennie, Smith, Kristy Hill and a superb covering challenge from Yallop, Three Kings were anti-climactic in front of goal in the first spell, a statement hardly applicable where Lynn-Avon were concerned.
They continued to press for a second goal, and came close on numerous occasions. In the 28th minute, Yallop released Gregorius down the right, and her deflected cross was headed goalwards by Moorwood. A deceptive bounce in front of Bindon took the ball past the `keeper, but just past the far post as well.
Referee Graham Whitford - a performance with which few could find fault - was also deceived by the bounce, and signalled a corner. Humby's delivery was headed wide by Gregorius, two minutes before Yallop fired a twenty-five yarder past the post.
Five minutes later, Yallop and Moorwood combined, the latter producing a delicious touch to present Parkinson with a shooting chance. Bindon grabbed this twenty-five yarder, and looked on five minutes
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 Petria Rennie (TKU) and Rebecca Parkinson (LAU)
 Hayley Moorwood (LAU)
 Maia Jackman (TKU)
 Kirsty Yallop (LAU)
 Jenny Bindon (TKU) saves from Dana Humby
 Sarah Gregorius (LAU) watched by Maggie Lankshear and Hannah Rishworth (TKU)
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before half-time as Rishworth raced across to produce a fine covering tackle which thwarted Moorwood, as she surged onto a Yallop pass.
Three Kings rang the changes at half-time, calling on two of the five internationals they had named on their bench. Indeed, of the sixteen players the visitors named for this match, only Hill has yet to represent her country at any level.
Add to that group the twelve NZ representatives of current or recent vintage named on Lynn-Avon's team card … that just 400 spectators were in attendance to see a match involving twenty-seven players who have donned the silver fern was a mite disappointing to many, because for the quality of football these players consistently produce, and the fact they are among the best in the country, gender regardless, they are deserving of far greater support from the local footballing fraternity.
Emma Harrison and Maggie Lankshear added a bit of grit and determination to a Three Kings display which saw Jackman having to fill far too many gaps, be they in defence or attack, as well as fulfil her duties on the flanks.
Her desperation to make amends for her team-mates' shortcomings in a match in which she is invariably a passionate performer occasionally saw that passion get the better of the former Lynn-Avon player, and when it was appropriate, referee Whitford produced a splendid piece of man-management to ensure Three Kings' captain kept her cool amid the chaos arising from her colleagues' shortcomings.
Lynn-Avon had no such concerns. Indeed, they pressed on from the resumption, with a deflected Ria Percival cross grabbed on the line by Bindon just thirty-five seconds into the second spell. Two minutes later, the `keeper was beaten by another vicious free-kick from Humby, this a thirty-yard effort on the angle which crashed against the crossbar.
Three Kings survived that scare, but after Kete had fired wide following a through ball from Lankshear, found themselves with a mountain to climb ten minutes into the second half.
Lynn-Avon's “Twin Terrors”, Yallop and Moorwood, were at the heart of this move, the pair playing a neat one-two before the first-mentioned slipped Gregorius in behind Rishworth. The striker's finish past Bindon was coolness personified, and the cup holders' grip on the trophy tightened perceptibly.
The visitors had no answers, but their hosts continued to ask questions. Bindon pawed another Humby free-kick, from twenty-five yards, round the post in the 62nd minute, which prompted a string of corners from the set-piece practitioner. Jackman managed to engineer scrambled clearances on each occasion, her glancing header on one occasion denying the rock-solid Jenny Carlisle a headed chance into the top corner.
In the 67th minute, Moorwood found an angle which no-one had anticipated to present Percival with a perfectly weighted pass which the youngster swept into the near post area, where Gregorius was fast arriving. So, too, was Erceg - the defender prevailed on this occasion.
But like her Three Kings colleagues, Erceg stood not a prayer in the 78th minute, as Yallop graced the biggest match of the season with a touch of sheer sublimity in conjuring a quite brilliant opportunity for Gregorius to convert.
She administered the coup de grace in explosive fashion - her finish was impeccable - but it was Yallop's intuitive and audacious lob, over already bewildered defenders anticipating another slide-rule pass, which set this goal apart. Quite simply, different class!
Lankshear rattling the crossbar with a twenty-yard free-kick ten minutes from time was the closest Three Kings came to scoring a goal, while Bindon's last involvement in the afternoon's action saw her paw out a Sam Selwyn effort, after the substitute had been picked out by Percival's cross.
It says much for Three Kings' overall indifferent display that Puckrin didn't have a save to make, while but for Bindon's efforts at the other end of the park, the cup holders could well have doubled their advantage by the final whistle.
Only the goalkeeper, Rennie, Jackman and second half substitute Lankshear can be proud of their efforts for the visitors' cause. Where Lynn-Avon are concerned, it's easier to acknowledge those who didn't play well, and even then you'd be nit-picking!
As they seek a fifth successive triumph and a seventh overall in the competition which, in the absence of a club-based women's national league, stands as the symbol of New Zealand women's soccer supremacy at club level, the cup holders' collective display against their closest rivals was as comprehensive as it gets.
Lynn-Avon: Puckrin; Humby, McCahill, Ray, Carlisle; Percival, Hoyle (Hansen, 76), Moorwood, Yallop; Parkinson (Selwyn, 79), Gregorius
Three Kings: Bindon; Rennie, Rishworth, Bromley (Harrison, 46), Erceg; Jackman, Sowden (Lankshear, 46), Hill, Smith; Kete (Longo, 71), Thompson
Referee: Graham Whitford
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