2016 Grand Final 111216

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Canterbury Conquer Capital To Claim Crown Again

by Jeremy Ruane

Canterbury United Pride claimed the National Women's League title for the third time in four seasons at English Park on December 11, downing a dogged Capital Football combination by a 2-0 scoreline in a Grand Final dominated by the home team.

The Mainlanders were all over Capital like a rash from the outset, with Annalie Longo swiftly taking up the baton as conductor-in-chief, and Aimee Phillips, who was chasing her fourth successive Grand Final winner's medal, her principle accomplice.

The Football Ferns' duo led their opponents a merry dance throughout proceedings, with Phillips firing the Final's first shot in anger, a dipping thirty yarder which landed on the roof of Natasha Ingram's net after she had swooped on a stray pass following successive corners from Longo and Ashleigh Ward.

Capital's passing betrayed their early nerves in this contest, with a fair few of their efforts under-hit. One, by Michaela Hunt towards Ingram in the eleventh minute, saw the bloodhound-like Phillips swoop on the scene. The 'keeper only just managed to clear her lines as the striker closed in for the kill.

The visitors needed a break, and their talisman, Briar Palmer, looked to provide it in the twelfth minute. Despite frequently finding herself the subject of attention from a couple of United rivals, the winger occasionally managed to steal a march on her rivals, on this occasion linking with Katie Barrott, whose cross sought out the incoming Emma Main.

Victoria Esson dashed out to gather the ball well under pressure, and very soon after United were on the rampage again. Macey Fraser fed Longo, whose fifty yard dash into Capital territory culminated in a pass which invited Holly Pascoe to deliver a cross from the right. Phillips, arriving on the far post, was her target, but the striker couldn't quite get on the right side of the delivery to threaten Ingram's goal.

She managed to earn a corner, however, which Longo delivered to the far post. Rebecca Lake headed the ball into the danger zone, forcing Ingram into a smart save on her line with Phillips once again in the thick of the action.

A panicked throw-out by the 'keeper put Palmer under all sorts of pressure from Pascoe inside Capital's penalty area, but the visitors' captain cleverly got herself out of a tight spot to briefly afford her team some respite from United's early raids.

The home team came again in the 22nd minute, Meikayla Moore picking out Longo with a pass which saw United's captain take the ball and all-comers on once more before slipping a pass into the stride of Ward, roaming forward from deep. She let rip a thirty yarder which Ingram was grateful to see land on the roof of her net.

Three minutes later, Phillips took the ball forward for the locals, who were well supported by a good 600-strong crowd. Her darting run down the right culminated in a pass to Fraser, whose hanging cross was spilled by Ingram. Pascoe was unable to capitalise on the gift.

For much of the first half, Capital barely crossed the half-way line, but they should have taken the lead in the 34th minute, albeit totally against the run of play. Tessa McPherson - a rare moment when policing Phillips wasn't on her agenda - sparked the attack, linking with Jayme-Lee Hunter, who spotted the blindside run of Main coming in off the right.

No one in red-and-black tracked her run, so when Main received the ball in Canterbury's penalty area, she had just Esson to beat to give Capital a shock lead. She duly fired the ball past the custodian, only to see it rebound off the post straight back to her. Main inexplicably fired her second attempt past the other upright, and in that moment, you knew that today wasn't meant to be for those sporting yellow and black.

That said, with Palmer in their armoury, all bets remained on for now. McPherson picked out the wing wizard five minutes later, and her pinpoint cross was destined for the head of Michaela Robertson until Esson calmly claimed the ball.

Canterbury heeded these warnings, and in the 43rd minute, hit back with a vengeance. Lake, Longo and Phillips cut a swathe through Capital's ranks, and while McPherson was able to close down the striker, she wasn't able to prevent her steering the ball into the stride of Pascoe, who picked out a beauty beyond the on-looking figure of Ingram to open the scoring.

The timing of the goal was devastating for Capital, who were hoping to go to the dressing rooms without having conceded anything. Instead, they nearly conceded a second in the shadows of the half-time whistle, with Moore and Phillips combining to release Fraser down the right.

Her deep cross to the far post found Sophie Williams, who slipped the ball into Pascoe's stride. Ingram kept this effort out, but she had no such joy seven minutes into the second spell, as Pascoe doubled her personal tally for the match, and that of her team.

Longo was at her impish best throughout proceedings, and on this occasion was leading Capital a merry dance on the right when she looked up to see Ward in acres of space on the left. Cue a pinpoint pass which invited the fullback to stride on unchallenged before whipping in a cross. It was cleared, but only as far as Pascoe, who pummelled a piledriver past Ingram to put Canterbury well on course for National Women's League Grand Final glory.

The Mainlanders continued to pile on the pressure in the immediate aftermath of the second goal. Fraser and Longo - a superb pass - combined to play in the overlapping figure of Moore in the 54th minute, but the Junior Ferns' captain's shot was smothered low to her left by Ingram.

Two minutes later, it was Phillips' turn to torment the travelling team, and after latching onto a loose

ball in midfield, she drew the defence before slipping a pass through for Pascoe to exploit. She took on two opponents before checking her run and firing a shot past the post.

The alarm bells were ringing in Canterbury's rearguard in the 61st minute when Moore inadvertently headed a Palmer cross, intended for Robertson, past Esson. With Capital's pint-sized speed merchant closing on her with every stride, the number one goalkeeper in the country beat a hasty retreat before diving on the ball before it rolled between the posts.

United responded through their tandem terrors, Longo and Phillips, who combined once more in the 63rd minute. The latter then worked a one-two with Pascoe before somehow wriggling her way through along the by-line, then seeing her acute-angled shot ricochet across the face of goal.

If anyone deserved a goal in this match, it was Phillips. She ran her heart out for the cause until she could, quite literally, run no more, cramp consuming her in the closing minutes of the match. As she slumped to the ground, prompting treatment, there came the quite comical site of roughly half the players on the pitch dropping to the ground to stretch tired limbs - it was almost domino-like, image-wise.

Before it occurred, however, Capital had carved out a couple of opportunities to score a consolation goal, with Canterbury quite content to keep them largely at arm's length during the final fifteen minutes of play.

After substitute Kayla Thomas had fired a long-range effort past the post for the home side, the visitors responded through Barrott, whose 78th minute free-kick culminated in Main stinging the gloves of Esson from an acute angle.

The fullback followed that up five minutes later by linking with Palmer, whose gorgeous cross picked out Maggie Jenkins' head. Her flick-on invited Robertson to attempt a lob of Esson, but the 'keeper was wise to the effort, and maintained her first clean sheet of the competition in the game which matters most.

Barrott featured again in stoppage time, this time in her defensive capacity. Canterbury were looking to finish with a flourish, and after substitute Gabi Rennie had got the better of McPherson, she delivered a cross which Pascoe steered past Ingram.

But as the striker began celebrating her hat-trick, her joy turned to disbelief as Barrott appeared from nowhere to clear the ball off the line - a terrific piece of defending which epitomised Capital's never-say-die approach to this entire competition, one in which they proved worthy finalists, even though it's fair to say they probably played their final seven days previously, in the form of their heroic against-the-odds semi-final triumph.

To the victor, the spoils, however, and Canterbury proved themselves the best team in the land for the third time in four years with this Grand Final success, one which came at the conclusion of unquestionably the most competitive National Women's League ever.

Lest we forget, at the end of the round-robin phase of the league, just one point covered the top four teams. Indeed, the league could have been tighter still, had the NWL not coincided with the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Finals in Papua New Guinea, a situation which denied Auckland Football, in particular, the cream of what would surely have been their first-choice starting line-up.

Imagine how enthralling this National Women's League would have been had it been played on a home and away basis, with the festive season affording the players a fortnight's break before the resumption of activities in the New Year, prior to the Grand Final taking place on the third weekend in February.

Why then? Given the Football Ferns contest either the Cyprus Cup or Algarve Cup in the first week of March, a full-on two-round NWL would, amongst other things:

" give the cream of each federation's players added incentive to stake a claim for a spot in the national squad;

" give Football Ferns coach Tony Readings the chance to add depth to the squad by selecting in-form domestic-based players to supplement our overseas-based professionals, thus improving the image of the team in the eyes of the NZ women's footballing public, many of whom hold the impression that the Football Ferns is a 'closed shop', an impression which can only truly be dispelled by the NWL being seen to be a key component in the selection process;

" allow the Ferns to hit the ground running in Cyprus with players who are match-ready - how many times have we started such tournaments 'cold', i.e. in need of a game under our belts before we're up to speed?

There are far more pros than cons to the introduction of a home-and-away National Women's League, with the biggest negative, of course, being the financial aspect. But would a full-scale NWL not be attractive to a sponsor, thus helping to negate some of those costs?

Plenty for NZ Football to ponder, then, with regard to growing the women's game in this country still further, and ultimately reinvigorating our international programmes at the end of a year in which all three of our representative women's teams returned report cards reading 'can do better'.

The undeniable success of this season's closely-fought National Women's League offers ample proof that the powers-that-be won't need to look too far to ensure that we do in future.

Canterbury: Esson; Moore, Lake, Jones (Thomas, 58), Ward; Longo, Hepburn, Williams; Fraser (Rennie, 71), Phillips (Nicholson, 89), Pascoe

Capital: Ingram; Grange (Morison, 62), Hunt, McPherson, Barrott; Jenkins (Strom, 84), Marsden (Baird, 90), Hunter; Main, Robertson, Palmer

Referee: Nadia Browning

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