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30/07/06
Holders Given Scare By Seatoun Before Making Final
by Jeremy Ruane
Reigning SWANZ Knockout Cup holders Lynn-Avon United were made to work mighty hard by Seatoun before earning their seventh successive appearance in the final of 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.
Lynn-Avon's 2-0 victory does scant justice to the contribution of the Central Region Premier Women's League champions-elect, who threw down the gauntlet to their Ken Maunder Park hosts and gave the cup holders a taste of their own medicine before succumbing to two goals in as many minutes as the hour mark ticked by.
Seatoun's goalscoring midfielder, Tonje Heinze, has thirteen goals to her name in league and cup action this season, and came desperately close to adding to that tally within two minutes of the start of battle, setting the tone for her team by rattling Lynn-Avon's crossbar with a dipping twenty-five yard effort.
As United embraced that wake-up call, Natasha Thorn-Williamson gave them something else to think about a minute later, a rifled drive which crashed into a rubbish bin to the left of Stephanie Puckrin's goal.
This stirred the home team into action, Ria Percival leading their response with a right-wing raid which culminated in her teasing cross-shot being pawed to safety by Karen Rigby, one of the few occasions in the match in which Seatoun's shot-stopper was called into action.
The visitors came roaring back, former Lynn-Avon star Michele Clarke (nee Keinzley) stripping Sarah Gregorius of possession and playing a one-two with Thorn-Williamson before setting up another ex-United star, Patrice Bourke, who wouldn't let a torn calf muscle deny her the chance to play in this match.
Her twenty-five yard grass-cutter careered a yard wide of Puckrin's left-hand post, while on the quarter-hour, Bourke pounced on a Terry McCahill clearance and promptly let fly from twenty yards, a shot which Puckrin greedily grabbed.
United's `keeper proved her worth again five minutes later, saving a thumping Clarke effort at the second attempt as Lynn-Avon reeled under an attacking onslaught, the likes of which they rarely encounter, but often administer.
The scent of an upset was in the air, despite a brief cameo from Lynn-Avon which saw a darting run from Hayley Moorwood spotted by Kirsty Yallop, who supplied a measured pass which put her team-mate into the penalty area.
Julia Baldwin swooped to spoil that opening, with referee Pat Barrett - a mixed bag of a performance - rightly waving away half-hearted penalty appeals arising from the U-20 international's challenge.
Just shy of the half-hour, Lynn-Avon raided again, Moorwood sparking the move by playing the ball wide to Jenny Carlisle. Her ball forward was flicked on by Rebecca Parkinson to Gregorius, whose interchange with Yallop presented Percival with a chance. She evaded Jacqui Goble's challenge before lashing the ball over the bar from twenty-five yards.
Back came Seatoun, who had their tails well and truly up by now. Former Three Kings United captain Nina Creedman played the ball into Heinze in the penalty area, where she got goal-side of Carlisle and let fly with a snap-shot.
McCahill foiled this threat, while the combination of Clarke and Creedman five minutes from half-time saw Puckrin's clearance fall to Heinze, who lashed her shot wide of the mark.
As if Lynn-Avon didn't have enough to contend with, the sight of NZ Under-20 captain Kirsty Yallop limping off with a thigh muscle injury was far from pleasant, from the point of view of both club and, more importantly, country.
Her club and age-grade team-mate Gregorius was also struggling with calf muscle problems, an injury to which she succumbed before ten minutes of the second spell had elapsed. Given the U-20s head off to Russia via Holland in a week's time, coach John Herdman will be one of many hoping two of the team's stalwarts can make a swift recovery from these eleventh hour scares.
The home team made a stronger start to the second spell, Moorwood and Percival combining to present Parkinson with a chance just forty-five seconds into the half. The striker's tame shot did scant justice to the quality of the cross which picked her out.
Seatoun responded by earning the game's first corner, in the fiftieth minute! Bourke's delivery picked out Zarnia Cogle's trusty left peg, but on this occasion she blazed over the crossbar.
Unperturbed, the New Zealand international kept on coming, providing a fine supporting run to rescue Annalies Van Kampen, who had been directed up a blind alley by Melissa Ray - another impressive
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 Hayley Moorwood
 Katie Hoyle
 Melissa Ray
 Julia Baldwin
 Michele Clarke
 Tess Murphy
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defensive display. Cogle's cross careered across the bows of the incoming Thorn-Williamson as she homed in on the far post - a let-off for Lynn-Avon.
This time, they responded with interest, Moorwood leading the charge. In the 55th minute, she caused a stir in Seatoun's penalty area before laying the ball back to Parkinson, who let fly with a ripper from twenty yards. Rigby saw it late and made a fabulous flying one-handed save to her right, pawing out a certain goal.
Gregorius, with her last act of the match, latched onto the rebound and steered the ball goalwards, only for the redoubtable Tess Murphy - super performance - to clear the danger. But only as far as Moorwood, whose shot was blocked by Goble. Percival, following up, also found a blue-clad barrier blocking her attempt to score, but Julia Baldwin and friends weren't so fortunate four minutes later.
A Rigby clearance was met by Moorwood, who directed a diving header wide to Parkinson, out near the left-hand touchline. She played the ball inside into the path of the charging figure of Percival, who scampered past a stunned defender before burying the ball in the top far corner of the net with precision aplenty - 1-0 Lynn-Avon, and a dagger in the collective heart of a Seatoun side far superior to that which encountered Eastern Suburbs in the 2005 semi-final.
As the visitors endeavoured to come to terms with this setback, United twisted the knife in brutal fashion just ninety seconds later. This time, Percival sparked the attack, releasing substitute Anne Allen down the right at breakneck speed.
Her first-time cross was a beauty, picking out the hard-working Katie Hoyle, who brought the ball down, checked inside then smashed the ball high inside Rigby's near post from fifteen yards.
Seatoun heads dropped as one, their collective spirit plumbing hitherto unknown depths, in stark contrast to the heights to which they had soared throughout their dominant first half display.
A team largely unrecognisable from that which had slumped to consecutive semi-final defeats by Three Kings United (5-0, 2004) and Eastern Suburbs (3-0, 2005), Seatoun certainly weren't two goals worse off than Lynn-Avon in this encounter. But 2-0 down they were, and in the 68th minute, they very nearly conceded a third.
Sixteen-year-old Percival was having a whale of a second half, and rampaged down the right once more before cutting inside. Her route to goal was cut off by U-20 team-mate Baldwin, but not that of Parkinson, who pounced on the rebound and let fly with a twenty-five yarder through the crowd which Rigby opted to leave well alone.
The `keeper got an almighty fright when the ball cannoned back into play off her right-hand post, but Murphy came to her rescue this time round.
Five minutes later, Lynn-Avon pressed again. Melanie Hansen and Sam Selwyn combined with Allen on the right, the last-mentioned getting to the by-line before crossing to the near post, where Moorwood was arriving. Her deft flick directed the ball across goal to Percival, who went for a fanciful finish and sliced her effort across the target and wide.
Seatoun rallied, and dominated the remainder of the game, but got little change from a Lynn-Avon defence which, by this time, was quite content to clear its lines without fuss whenever the opportunity arose. Numerous long-range efforts were capably dealt with by Puckrin, who was called into action of a more demanding nature five minutes from time.
Baldwin and Cogle teamed up on the left, the latter slipping the ball into Clarke's path as she burst into the penalty area. The striker's effort was blocked by the legs of Puckrin, with the ricochet being gathered by Thorn-Williamson. She linked with Cogle, who drove in a cross which was blocked by the goalkeeper as Van Kampen closed in for the kill.
Ray cleared the danger this time round, while Puckrin waved away a Van Kampen effort in stoppage time which signalled the last act of a Seatoun display deserving of far better reward than that afforded it by Lynn-Avon on this occasion.
Of their three successive semi-final reversals, this was by far the Wellington club's best display of the lot. This time, they will wonder what might have been, had they taken half their chances. Lynn-Avon took two of their few, and continue their pursuit of a record fifth successive SWANZ Knockout Cup triumph, against Western Springs, as a result.
Lynn-Avon: Puckrin; Hansen, Ray, McCahill, Carlisle; Percival, Moorwood, Hoyle, Yallop (Selwyn, 44) (Doubleday, 77); Parkinson, Gregorius (Allen, 55)
Seatoun: Rigby; Murphy, Baldwin, Goble; Creedman (Hamilton, 62), Heinze, Bourke, Thorn-Williamson, Cogle; Van Kampen, Clarke
Referee: Pat Barrett
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