Lynn-Avon United’s Maia Jackman, who, during the summer, contemplated transferring her undoubted footballing talents to Three Kings United, scored the only goal five minutes from the end of a titanic encounter between the clubs at Ken Maunder Park on Anzac Day,  1997, to leave the defending Northern Premier Women’s League champions as the sole unbeaten Auckland team after four rounds of play. In all honesty, a goalless draw would have been a fair result, a fact readily acknowledged by both teams and numerous spectators after the match. But as Geoff Boycott so often says during his cricket commentaries, “You takes your chances, you wins your matches”. And five minutes from time, Jackman did just that. At the time, Three Kings were hot on attack, with Pernille Andersen seeing her drive saved by Yvonne Vale, who carried the ball over the dead-ball line in the process. The resulting corner saw Michele Cox head goalwards, with Karen Rodger clearing the danger after the ball had struck her arm, which prompted a plethora of penalty claims. The ball was latched onto by Angela Vujnovich, who picked out Jackman inside her, in the centre-circle. The striker took on Melita Harrison, who forced the SWANZ international wide of the target as she surged forward with the ball at toe. In the vicinity of the edge of the penalty area, Jackman let fly at goal, and the ball arced over the head of Three Kings’ goalkeeper, Rachel Howard, and crashed into the net via the far post - a true opportunist strike.

Prior to that moment, this was anybody’s game. Three Kings could have had the points wrapped up in the first twenty-five minutes, so dominant were they in that period, with Cox, Marlies Oostdam and Karin Fox-Jensen in total control of the centre of the park. Chances, consequently, were numerous, with Andersen often on the end of them. She was denied by Vale in the sixth minute, while Car Oostdam’s first touch let her down in front of goal five minutes later, after Andersen had briefly evaded the attentions of her otherwise well-performed opponent, Alisse Robertson, to deliver a low cross from the byline. Jill Corner’s timely seventeenth minute tackle denied Andersen a shot on goal as she prepared to pull the trigger, while Vale was again foiling the Danish striker three minutes later, this time smothering a low cross from Beth Clark as the league’s leading goalscorer moved in for the kill.

After weathering this spell of concerted pressure, Lynn-Avon started to come back into the game initially through touchline raids by Vujnovich and Katrina Sharpe. But Three Kings reasserted their authority on proceedings, with Andersen unleashing another couple of efforts on goal before the interval, both of which were saved by Vale. The pendulum swung Lynn-Avon’s way in the second spell, with the home team, after a half-time rev-up from Maurice Tillotson, responding in the manner he desired immediately after the break. Vujnovich was foiled by Howard in the 51st minute, following a Melissa Wileman cross, while the goalkeeper again denied the striker a minute later, Jackman the source on this occasion. Howard pulled off a superb one-handed save at full stretch in the 54th minute, with Vujnovich this time holding her head in her hands after doing everything right when finding herself with just the ‘keeper to beat. Jackman was frustrated by Three Kings’ last line of defence a minute later, as Lynn-Avon poured on the pressure. A brief respite allowed Three Kings to break forward, with Jane Simpson heading an Andersen corner wide in the 62nd minute, before Jackman fired wide of the target after Corner’s set-piece had been fumbled by Howard - her only error in a fiercely contested duel. The ensuing thrust and counter-thrust kept the near-200 crowd - a tremendous turn-out for a Premier Women’s League encounter - enthralled, before Jackman’s netbulger broke the hearts of the gallant Three Kings’ charges.