Northern Football retained their three-point lead at the top of the National Women's League table on October 29, but they were mightily relieved to retain their unbeaten record come the final whistle as reigning champions Canterbury United Pride came from two goals down to earn a 2-2 on the QBE Stadium Tigerturf. In all honesty, the visitors deserved to win the game, hitting the woodwork on four other occasions against a Northern side shorn of the talents of injured trio Liz Savage, Sammi Tawharu and Saskia Vosper. They were also missing Kate Loye, and one can only wonder what NZ Football's new Technical Director, Andreas Heraf, observing the match from the concrete terraces, made of a player with Football Ferns aspirations opting to prioritise her participation in a marathon ahead of taking part in the match of the round in the country's showpiece women's football league … a poor career choice, methinks! Canterbury, too, were without some of their stars, but the injured Victoria Esson was cheering them on from the sidelines while rising defensive starlet Emma Clarke started the match on the bench, and significantly nullified one of Northern's prime threats once she did take to the field - a Football Fern in waiting, this lass! The visitors enjoyed the better of the early exchanges, but Northern fired the first shot in anger, Jane Barnett curling one away from the target after swooping on a stray Whitney Hepburn pass in the fourth minute. Seconds later, Malia Steinmetz was on the charge for the home team, supplemented by the overlapping run of Casey Klyn, whose cross was deftly controlled in the area by Barnett. Before she could let fly, however, Meikayla Moore stepped in to avert the danger. Northern kept on the front foot, and an eighth minute corner from Barnett was scrambled to the edge of their penalty area by Canterbury, at which point Annalie Longo took charge of proceedings. Downfield she rampaged, scampering past retreating Northern opponents with gay abandon. The half-way line came and went, but there was no stopping "Flea", who got to the edge of the home team's penalty area before checking her run, then curling a delectable strike which deserved far better fate than to hit the far post, thus denying those present of witnessing what would have been one of the great goals. Northern retorted via another error, Mel Cameron's blunder pounced on by Hannah Mackay-Wright, who instantly fed Arabella Maynard. Her shot was blocked, but Cara Lonergan latched onto the rebound, only to direct it wide of the target. Back came the Cantabrians, with Meikayla Wieblitz - back in full flight after enduring the dreaded ACL injury - buccaneering down the right at pace before thundering a twenty yarder across the diving figure of Anna Leat, only for the ball to strike the other post - was it going to be one of those days for the champions? Not if they could help it. In the twelfth minute, Hepburn's block tackle stopped a Northern raid dead in its tracks, and allowed Longo to unleash the menace of Aimee Phillips down the left. She duly gave three defenders the slip before seeing her low cross, intended for Wieblitz, being smothered gratefully by Leat. The visitors continued to press, with a Wieblitz free-kick in the eighteenth minute just arcing beyond both Phillips and Moore as both looked to open the scoring, an honour which was Northern's a mere sixty seconds later. Maynard, who caused the visitors no end of trouble with her surges in off the left flank throughout the first half, indulged in just such a run on this occasion before picking out Steinmetz with her pass. The midfielder worked a slick one-two with Dayna Stevens to leave herself one-on-one with Una Foyle, who was comprehensively beaten - 1-0. This rather rocked the title-holders, who lost their way a little for a period, Phillips' shot through the hands of Leat five minutes after the goal their lone attempt of note during a twenty-minute spell in which Gabrielle Rennie was introduced to the fray at Wieblitz's expense. Errors by both teams were commonplace throughout this phase of the game, during which Northern went close via a Steinmetz snapshot, following the good work on Klyn and Stevens on the right. Foyle foiled this 28th minute attempt, and was relieved not to find herself facing a penalty seven minutes later as decent claims by the home team were rebuffed by referee Wendy McNeely, as Maynard went down in the area under the challenge of Annabel Gilchrist. Northern continued to press after this close call, and were rewarded four minutes before half-time by a second goal. The ball broke kindly for Steinmetz, who wasted little time in bringing Barnett into play. Her touch played Lonergan in with just Foyle to beat, and Canterbury were suddenly staring at a two-goal deficit. The visitors looked to halve the deficit in the shadows of the half-time whistle, with Rennie's initial progress curtailed. But Phillips was lurking nearby, and picked up the pieces before putting paid to a prospective tackle prior to pummelling a shot towards the target, one to which Leat proved equal. After Foyle had dashed out of goal to curtail the threat posed by Lonergan as she looked to latch onto a Steinmetz through ball, Phillips' bid to fire the visitors' first shot in anger in the second spell fell foul of a Cat Pretty challenge, one which referee

McNeely deemed foul-worthy. Northern defender Bernadette Goulding begged to differ in terms to which the official took umbrage, and the yellow card was given an airing for the only time in this well-contested affair. Macey Fraser's resulting free-kick picked out Moore, but she couldn't direct her 53rd minute effort on target, unlike the outcome of Canterbury's next free-kick, Longo despatching a twenty-two yard strike into the top near corner of Leat's goal to drag her team back into the contest in the 58th minute. Northern swiftly sought to restore their two-goal advantage, and but for Rebecca Lake's timely intervention could well have done so, after Lonergan caught her fellow Norwest United team-mate Moore in possession, an aspect of her game which the Football Ferns defender needs to eradicate. Within three minutes of getting back into the contest, Canterbury were on level terms. Moore played the ball forward for Longo, lurking on the left flank, off which she darted inside, leading half-time substitute Aneka Mittendorff a merry dance in the process. After drifting past two more challengers, Longo spotted Rennie in space in Northern's penalty area, and duly lofted the ball right to the striker, who prodded home the leveller amid claims of offside by Northern, claims which bore no substance in the match officials' eyes. That goal set up a barnstorming last half-hour of action, with most of it centred around Leat's goal. Not before Stevens dashed down the right at pace before cutting into the penalty area, where her progress was halted by Tahlia Herman-Watt's covering run. Cue a cavalcade of Canterbury chances. Mittendorff's vital tackle denied Phillips twenty minutes from time, after Cameron and Fraser had combined to set up their team-mate, while after Moore had let fly from distance - Leat was right behind it, Hepburn invited Rennie to whip in a cross beyond the far post which the fast-arriving figure of Herman-Watt was unable to direct on target. Sixteen minutes from time, Canterbury twice hit the crossbar inside ten seconds, the culmination of a lovely move ignited by Lake, and which featured a one-two between Clarke and Rennie before the fullback and Phillips combined to send Rennie racing down the right. Her cross picked out Longo, who picked out a peach of a chip which beat Leat all ends up, only for the ball to crash against the crossbar. Fraser, following in, wasted little time in reacting, and headed the ball goalwards, only for Leat to produce a fabulous fingertip save, tipping the ball onto the top of the crossbar and to safety. Northern responded with a rare raid, the only time in the second spell that Maynard managed to escape the clutches of Clarke. Unfortunately for the talented youngster, she ran into the equally formidable figure of Lake, whose smart jockeying forced Maynard to run out of real estate, the chance lost. In the 77th minute, Northern were carved open once again, this time by Phillips, who took on two rivals in the penalty area and wove a path between them before prodding the ball past the advancing figure of Leat and towards the untended net beyond. But the striker was denied the chance to celebrate what would surely have been the winner by Mittendorff, who, stretching every sinew, did just enough to divert the ball past the post and keep her side on level terms. The resulting corner was taken short, and off Longo charged once more, beating two before linking with Phillips, who invited Rennie to let rip from twenty yards. This chipped effort narrowly cleared the crossbar, while Leat turned away a shot from similar distance by Longo three minutes later, after Phillips and Cameron had combined to set up their captain. One of the outstanding features of this match was that neither side resorted to breaking up the game's momentum during the vast majority of the last half-hour with tactical (read time-wasting) substitutions, which have been the bane of many a game in this competition, and not just this season. This meant patrons were treated to a genuine contest, with those second half changes which were made coming in the final five minutes, during which time Canterbury went close to winning it, Mackay-Wright's timely block foiling Phillips' bid to do justice to the creativity of Cameron, Longo and Rennie in the build-up. 2-2 it finished, then, a result which Northern will have been happier with, given how many key players they were without. Imagine the psychological blow to all teams in the league they would have struck had they held onto their half-time advantage? Canterbury, meanwhile, despite coming from two goals down to draw, will see this as two points dropped, given the number of times they hit the woodwork, and were denied in the last half-hour by the efforts of Leat and her team-mates, Mittendorff's goal-line clearance in particular. Northern:     Leat; Klyn, Mackay-Wright, Bunge (Mittendorff, 46), Goulding (booked, 51); Steinmetz, Pretty, Maynard (Gross, 86); Stevens, Barnett, Lonergan Canterbury:     Foyle; Gilchrist (Clarke, 46), Lake, Moore, Herman-Watt; Longo (Jones, 88), Hepburn, Wieblitz (Rennie, 32); Fraser (Stewart, 89), Cameron, Phillips Referee:     Wendy McNeely