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22/10/06
Central Survive Mainland Mauling To Steal Points
by Jeremy Ruane
Central Soccer scored their first win of the Lion Foundation National Women's League season on October 22, a well-taken opportunist strike from Ella Wiebe stealing a 1-0 win at the expense of a Mainland Soccer combination which battered away in vain throughout this encounter, in search of the goal needed to ignite their season.
How the visitors survived ninety minutes without their goal-line being breached defied logic! It was a combination of poor finishing and a tremendous rearguard action, with defender Nikki Wenzlick in outstanding form as she and her colleagues, who were initially hesitant but who grew in confidence as the game wore on, foiled wave after wave of black-clad raids on their goal.
That hesitance was evident after just sixty-eight seconds, as Wenzlick and goalkeeper Rangi-Nuku Nikora left a Sally Chetwin through ball to each other to deal with - not the wisest decision to make when Clare Warner is prowling around. The striker nipped in between them but couldn't direct her effort on target.
Five minutes after Monique Francois and Wiebe had both fired wide inside the first five minutes, the Mainlanders began to take charge of proceedings, with Rebecca West twice spurning chances in as many minutes following the promptings of Kelly Jarden and Warner.
Mel Edwards then directed a header from a Warner corner past the far post before Jarden sent a twenty-five yarder sizzling over the crossbar after working an opening with Natalie Johnston.
Central mounted a rare raid in the 24th minute, culminating in a free-kick. Wenzlick's delivery was allowed to bounce by Mainland's defence. Goalkeeper Megan Andrew came charging out but was beaten to the ball by Tina Stevenson. Fortunately for the young shot-stopper, Jane Simpson was on hand to tidy up the loose ends.
After Nikora had grabbed a Warner shot at the second attempt, the striker having pounced on a poor first touch by Lauren McKeown, a raking clearance by Central's `keeper was allowed to bounce by the Mainlanders.
Weibe swooped on the ball and released Jessica Dent down the right, the striker scything inside Edwards before feeling the full force of a Jarden tackle. The danger wasn't over for Mainland, however, as the ball spilled loose to Wiebe, whose volleyed cross was grabbed by Andrew.
The bulk of the rest of the half was dominated by Mainland. Warner's driven low cross in the 32nd minute was completely missed by Nikora, who was fortunate to enjoy a second bite of the cherry. Five minutes later, the young goalkeeper's sliced clearance gifted West a gaping goal at which to let fly, but she failed to hit the target from twenty-five yards.
The left-sided midfielder repeated the dose from inside the penalty area three minutes later after Chetwin had skipped past two challenges and picked West out with a cross, after which Warner and Nikora resumed their personal war.
The goalkeeper smothered the striker's shot on the turn in the 41st minute. But a free-kick awarded just outside the penalty area in the 43rd minute by referee Stu Cox presented Nikora with further difficulties to address.
Warner lined up the set-piece, and picked out the top far corner perfectly. Nikora flung herself high to her right to pull off a superb fingertip save, however, diverting the effort onto the post to keep the former National Women's League Golden Boot winner at bay.
As if Nikora and company weren't doing enough to stop Mainland from scoring, West aided their cause on the stroke of half-time by getting in the way of a full-blooded Chetwin drive. And as soon as the second half began, the home team continued to pound away in search of their first goal of the season.
Two rising drives from Jarden flew over the crossbar, as did an effort from half-time substitute Aimee Phillips in the 57th minute, the final act of a delightful move sparked by a one two between Jarden and Warner, the latter playing the ball to Chetwin, who got in behind Elina Tito-Smyth to pick out Phillips with her cross.
There was no let-up for Central - they had hardly escaped their own half of the pitch since play resumed! Indeed, apart from a twenty-five yard screamer from Stevenson three minutes before the interval which had Andrew beaten all ends up, they had hardly registered as an attacking force since just before the half-hour mark.
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 Ella Wiebe (Central)
 Clare Warner (Mainland)
 Jessica Dent (Central)
 Kelly Jarden (Mainland)
 Nikki Wenzlick (Central)
 Sally Chetwin (Mainland)
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In the 58th minute, Stef White played Warner through, and after outfoxing Tito-Smyth, the striker groaned in despair as Nikora smothered her cross. The goalkeeper prevailed again at Warner's expense three minutes later, West and Phillips combining to create a chance which the striker drove straight at Nikora, who saw McKeown come to her rescue five minutes later.
Ruth Bourke picked out Warner on half-way, and down the right she tore before whipping in a cross from the by-line. The defender's headed clearance was vital, as two Phillips and West were homing in on the delivery just behind the McKeown.
The home team's frustrations continued unabated in the 67th minute, as Wenzlick cleared a Phillips effort. Bourke picked up the pieces and, from thirty-five yards, let fly with a dipping effort which dipped just over the crossbar.
Two minutes later, Central mounted their first raid of note in the half. It came to nought when Andrew secured possession, but the goalkeeper's wayward clearance went straight to the one Central player best equipped to capitalise on such laxness.
Wiebe didn't need a second invitation, and from twenty-five yards out on the angle, uncorked a gem of a strike which arrowed into the top far corner of the net to give the visitors an unlikely - and, it must be said, scarcely deserved - lead.
For a few seconds, Mainland's body language suggested they'd been collectively hit by a truck - given their dominance of the game, it was a massive blow with which to come to terms, but embrace it they had to, for with twenty minutes left, there was still time for that elusive goal to materialise.
Back they came. Chetwin caught Tito-Smyth in possession, and quickly linked with Phillips and Warner, whose low cross was smothered by her nemesis, Nikora. Then West twice went close, first with a headed effort after Jarden and Chetwin had teamed up, and then with a desperately unlucky strike, the ball cannoning off her shin to safety - from Central's viewpoint - after Phillips and Warner had combined on the right.
After Andrew had grabbed a driven effort from Central substitute Rhonda Bridges - the turn she executed to escape the clutches of Bourke was superb, it was Lotto ticket time for Nikora! She spilled Warner's 76th minute corner, but before anyone in black could react, the ball spun to safety … with this sort of fortune, you began to sense that, try as they might, this would not be Mainland's day.
Another effort from Warner troubled the Air Traffic Control team at Harewood, before Central took a leaf from their hosts' book and penned Mainland inside their own half for the bulk of the last ten minutes, the home team seemingly have run out of attacking ideas.
In that time, the visitors engineered two chances, the first of which materialised in the 84th minute. Wiebe jinked her way past two players on the right and fired over a deep cross which Piamoana Penetito pounced on. She played the ball back to Kelly Stembridge, who rolled it into the path of the hard-working figure of Gail Hall.
Her twenty-yarder was plucked from the skies by Andrew, but when another opportunity fell the seasoned campaigner's way in stoppage time, Mainland's `keeper was beaten all ends up. The crossbar came to her aid, however, as Hall exploited Andrew's advanced positioning with a dipping twenty-five yard chip.
It was effectively the last chance of the game, for with Wenzlick - fittingly - having scrambled clear Jarden's cross seconds earlier following a free-kick rashly conceded by Tito-Smyth for which she earned a booking, Mainland's last opportunity had gone, and the home team were left to contemplate the golden rule of football - “You takes your chances, you wins your matches!!”
It certainly rang true on this occasion, much to Central's delight, the result lifting them off the foot of the table and within a point of the current leading play-off contenders, Waikato-Bay of Plenty. Mainland are a further two points adrift, but until they rediscover their scoring touch, a third-placed finish looks beyond them.
Mainland: Andrew; Simpson, Bourke, Angow, Hepburn; Chetwin, Jarden, White, West (Murray, 82); Warner, Johnston (Phillips, 46)
Central: Nikora; McKeown, Wenzlick, Schmidt, Tito-Smyth (booked, 88); Wiebe, Hall, Stembridge, Stevenson (Penetito, 80); Dent (Kenny, 90), Francois (Bridges, 64)
Referee: Stu Cox
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