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25/04/99
Champions Prevail In Absorbing Chess Match
by Jeremy Ruane
Three Kings United withheld the strong challenge of Lynn-Avon United at Keith Hay Park on April 25 to emerge triumphant 2-0 winners in their Bluebird Northern Premier Women’s League encounter, and strike a significant blow in their bid to clinch back-to-back championships.
Both sides began nervously, with the visitors enjoying the advantage of a fickle wind at their backs in the first spell. Melissa Wileman spurned the first chance of the game, shooting tamely at Michelle Hodge in the fourth minute.
Maia Jackman went close for Three Kings soon after, beating Yvonne Vale in the air, but was unable to direct her header inside the far upright of an unguarded net. Vale was in action again soon after, the Cox sisters combining to create the eleventh minute opening, Tarah’s shot being smothered by the New Zealand international, who has returned to action this season after the birth of her second child.
Lynn-Avon were in the ascendancy again soon after, Jennifer Carlisle’s cross-shot whipping narrowly over the crossbar in the fourteenth minute. Seven minutes later, Petra Visschers’ right wing cross was flicked on by Angela Vujnovich to Amanda Crawford, who brought the save of the match out of Hodge, despite being off-balance as she fired goalwards.
On the half-hour mark, a Dana Heiford cross resulted in efforts from Vujnovich and Crawford being blocked by Three Kings’ rearguard, which performed stoically throughout the first spell in combating the wind-assisted charges of their opponents.
The champions were looking to counter-attack whenever the opportunity allowed itself in the first spell, and a thirty-sixth minute raid was sparked by Michele Cox, who fed the ball wide to Jane Simpson. She easily beat Katrina Sharpe - a poor game by her standards - and drilled in a cross for Jackman, only for Alisse Robertson to produce a fine recovering challenge to regain possession.
Crawford sent a long-range effort dipping narrowly over the crossbar in the 38th minute, while Wileman was again foiled by Hodge two minutes later, after Crawford, Vujnovich and Carlisle had combined on the right, the last-mentioned being denied a shooting chance herself by Tarah Cox’s fine covering play.
With Lynn-Avon having failed to turn their first half territorial advantage into goals, Three Kings fancied their chances of showing their opponents how best to make use of the prevailing wind after the interval.
Before they could, however, referee Kevin Ball turned away a Lynn-Avon penalty claim. Visschers and Vujnovich combined to slip the ball through for Crawford, who had Sacha Haskell for company throughout this absorbing encounter.
Hodge came off her line as the striker and defender pursued the ball, and the three of them appeared to arrive together, Crawford seemingly squeezed out of the deal as Three Kings regained possession, illegally so according to the visitors.
The ball was down the other end of the park in fairly quick time, with Three Kings forcing a succession of corners. Marlies Oostdam’s inswinging deliveries were invariably right in the zone, and Lynn-Avon was forced to clear one off the line in the 52nd minute.
With the wind at their backs, the home team was warming to the task, and a long ball forward in the 63rd minute saw Robertson miscue her header into the path of Simpson. Down the right she scampered, before delivering a low cross for Jennifer Kelley. Her effort was blocked, but no one from Three Kings was following up on the rebound, allowing Lynn-Avon to scramble clear.
The champions opened the scoring two minutes later, through an unlikely source. Kelley started the move on the right flank, beating two players before slipping the ball inside for Jackman. She laid the ball back for Michele Cox, whose shot was blocked by Heiford.
The 1998 New Zealand Player of the Year sent the rebound out to the left flank, where a wicked bounce invited the overlapping Renee Brookland to launch a header goalwards. Vale had advanced off her line anticipating a cross, but as soon as the ball left the head of her opponent, the goalkeeper knew she was beaten, and could only watch as the sphere arced over her en route to the far corner of the net.
Crawford led a Lynn-Avon counter-attack straight from the kick-off, which foundered upon Vujnovich’s tame header goalwards. Three minutes later, Tarah Cox made a meal of clearing Visschers’ cross from the right, the ball ricocheting off Vujnovich to the feet of Crawford. Her shot flashed across the face of goal and past the far post, much to Hodge’s relief.
Jackman’s pace exposed Robertson in the 73rd minute, but on this occasion the chance was wasted. Minutes later, only a splendid recovering tackle by Terry McCahill denied Jackman, after the superb close control of Kelley had created an opening for the SWANZ striker, who played the full match despite the burden of a stomach upset.
Simpson went close within seconds, Vale denying her SWANZ team-mate as the superior fitness of Three Kings, combined with their willingness to work for each other on and off the ball, left Lynn-Avon chasing shadows. It was not unusual, particularly as the second half progressed, to see the ever-energetic Crawford having to fulfil the roles of some of her less mobile defensive and midfield colleagues as they cried ‘Enough!’
The visitors were finished off in the 79th minute by a thumping twenty-yard drive from Jackman. Oostdam picked out Kelley’s break down the left, and the striker drew two defenders towards her before slipping the ball into the gap into which Jackman was charging. The ball fair seared past Vale on its way high into the net to ensure Three Kings of the points, courtesy a hard-earned 2-0 victory.
The champions were well worth their win, with solid performances all over the park, particularly from the midfield quintet. At the back, Hodge was sound when called upon, while Oostdam marshalled the rearguard efforts to good effect, particularly in the first half when Lynn-Avon, led inevitably by Crawford, were probing for openings which never eventuated.
Haskell’s duel with Crawford was one of the individual highlights of the match, but the inevitable midfield battle was clearly won by Three Kings, as Visschers, Heiford and Sharpe all went missing when the heat was on. Only Carlisle, of the Lynn-Avon quintet, could say she satisfied the standards expected of her on the day.
Indeed, in a match in which there was no love lost in the tackles, Carlisle and Tarah Cox crossed paths on a few occasions to produce a couple of meaty challenges - these were another individual highlight of a match which was a fine advert for women’s soccer at its best.
McCahill was the pick of Lynn-Avon’s defensive effort, but the two players who stood out as the difference between the sides were the Three Kings’ front-runners. Given she was playing despite illness, Jackman’s performance was huge, and her match-winning finish was fitting reward.
For mine, however, the outstanding performer in this match was the technically superb Kelley. She was everywhere - right flank, left flank, through the middle ... she led Lyn Pedruco a merry dance, one with which the former SWANZ international had difficulty coping.
That ‘JK’ played a key role in both goals was no surprise, as she gives Three Kings’ attack a more balanced appearance. Whereas in the last two seasons, the champions have been able to count on the goalpoacher supreme, Pernille Andersen, they now have, in Kelley, a more versatile attacking proposition - a maker, as well as a taker, of chances, who brings more out of the team as a result. And opponents thought things were tough enough last year ...
Three Kings: Hodge; Haskell, Oostdam, Exler; Simpson (O’Hara, 87), Sowden, M. Cox, T. Cox, Brookland (Harrison, 82); Jackman, Kelley
Lynn-Avon: Vale; Robertson, McCahill, Pedruco; Visschers, Wileman, Carlisle, Heiford (Hutchinson, 77), Sharpe; Crawford, Vujnovich
Referee: Kevin Ball
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