Capital Football handed a feeble Waikato-Bay of Plenty combination a 5-0 hiding in their National Women's League encounter at Cambridge's John Kerkhof Park on October 26, the visitors producing their best display of the season to date as the competition reached the half-way mark. In truth, this game was over as a contest inside the first ten minutes of play, during which time Capital struck twice to leave the home team in complete disarray. Just five minutes had elapsed when Emma Rolston latched onto a Rachel Major clearance and brought Jemma Robertson into play. Her hanging cross was misjudged by both Major and Georgia Candy, but not by Kelsey Wilkinson, who stole in to slam the ball home high into the net from an ever-decreasing angle. Three minutes later, the same player doubled Capital's advantage. Libby Boobyer stood up Lilly Muspratt on WaiBOP's right then burst past the fullback before whipping in a cross to the near post, where Wilkinson, arriving at breakneck pace, unleashed a fulminating first-time twelve yard volley which was bulging the back of Candy's net before the 'keeper had had a chance to react - a terrific goal! Those early goals put Capital well in command, and with Michaela Robertson rampaging forward in mesmerising fashion at every opportunity, it seemed only a matter of time before a third goal materialised for the visitors. The pint-sized attack-minded whiz kid went close to adding it herself in the 23rd minute, once more terrorising WaiBOP's defence before unleashing a drive which Candy dived to her right to save. But sadly for the game, Michaela Robertson's remaining time on the park would be all too brief, a scything challenge from Caitlyn Byrne curtailing her creative gusto and leaving Capital's lion-hearted leader limping heavily and unable to continue come the half-hour mark. Robertson joined Grace Wisnewski as an early casualty in the contest, WaiBOP's wunderkind having departed the fray ten minutes earlier, a blow which severely hampered the home team's attacking prospects, so much so that Molly Simons barely had a shot to save in Capital's goal. Not so her opposite number. Indeed, Candy's contribution to the contest ensured Capital didn't win this by the proverbial country mile. A lovely move ten minutes before half-time featuring Ellen Fibbes, Nina Kondo, Boobyer and Robertson's replacement, the impressively performed Charlotte Wilford-Carroll, culminated in a cross which invited a flying header from Rolston. The ball flew just past the post, as it did on the stroke of half-time, this time from Rolston's boot, as the striker met Jemma Robertson's pullback with a fiercely struck eighteen yard drive which prompted a full-length dive to her left in vain by Candy. The general pattern of play continued into the second spell, Boobyer lashing a twenty-five yarder narrowly over the bar two minutes after the resumption of play to signal Capital's intentions. WaiBOP responded with their first attack of note in the contest, seven minutes later. Substitute Adi-Grace Mooar's initial cross was blocked, so she played the ball back to fellow replacement Natasha Reiri. Her delivery careered across the face of goal, but no one in a red-and-blue-halved shirt was on hand to turn it home. That attack gave the home fans something to cheer, but they were soon looking on with grudging admiration as Capital stepped up the pace following that close call. Rolston released Wilkinson down the left with a pass from half-way which the hat-trick-hunting striker latched onto before setting up Wilford-Carroll for a twenty-yarder which whistled narrowly over the bar. In the 61st minute, Capital made it 3-0, but not before referee Kason Browning had completely ignored an over-the-top challenge by a visiting player which prompted the turning over of possession. Molly Woodhead was the beneficiary of the ball, and promptly played it to Rolston, whose flick inside invited Wilford-Carroll to steer the ball into the stride of yet another substitute, Dani Ohlsson. Her deft volley over Candy found the top corner of the net - 3-0. By this stage of the match, five substitutions had taken place, and a further five were to come as both teams emptied their benches. Pray tell why, in what

is the highest level of the women's game in New Zealand, development league standards are employed with regard to the number of substitutions a team can make? The maximum number of substitutions a team should be allowed to make in elite level football is three, elite level being all internationals, full representative fixtures, national league or cup competitions and in Premier League club football and in divisions immediately below it (e.g. Northern Leagues One and Two). Below those levels, you can do what you like - rolling subs, five subs from seven, the lot. But not at this level. Not in your shop window competitions. In these, standards should be at their highest, something which is certainly not the case when league regulations allow five substitutes to take the field at this level. That. Is. Just. Wrong. On so many levels, and in so many ways. Back to the action. Rolston went desperately close with a spanking twenty yard volley in the 63rd minute, as New Zealand's most prolific markswoman at international age grade level strove to add her name to the scoresheet. She was denied again two minutes later, brilliantly by Candy, who dived backwards to paw a goalbound back-header away from the base of her left-hand upright after Rolston had looked to capitalise on a Nina Kondo free-kick. Capital's pressure was relentless, Wilkinson and Wilford-Carroll combining to present Robertson with a chance with which she should have done far better, poor technique the reason why her rising drive threatened to clear the clubrooms, let alone the crossbar. Knee over the ball - at least get it on target. After Maddi Ollington's timely tackle had thwarted Wilkinson in the act of shooting, Rolston finally got the goal she coveted in the 68th minute, a bullet header from six yards after being picked out by Kondo's precise corner. The visitors should have been presented with the chance for a fifth goal two minutes later, but referee Browning - no relation to leading women's referee Nadia Browning, who served as Fourth Official in this contest - once more overlooked a clear foul as Wilkinson was bundled to earth from behind by Major's agricultural shove. Perhaps the official opted to play on, rather than award this stonewall penalty, with the ball having rolled straight to Rolston. Her shot was parried by Candy, with Shannon Trebes scrambling the rebound to safety. After Tupelo Dugan had thundered a thirty-yarder narrowly past the post, the tidily-performed midfielder linked with Ohlsson fifteen minutes from time. She evaded a challenge then fired in a low cross which flew just beyond the incoming figure of Robertson, another who was keen to get in on the scoring act as Capital looked to dip their bread against opponents from whom more had been expected. This was easily WaiBOP's worst display of the campaign thus far. But for Candy, that would have been reflected on the scoreboard. She superbly turned a swerving drive from Robertson round the post in the 76th minute, then thwarted Wilkinson's bid to complete her hat-trick five minutes from time as Dugan and Robertson combined to prise open WaiBOP's rearguard once more. A further raid in the 89th minute brought up a nap hand for Capital on the scoreboard. Robertson did exceptionally well to deliver a cross after Ollington's wild challenge arrived long after the ball had been present, and the beneficiary of her tenacity was substitute Jemma Catherwood, whose ferocious fifteen yarder careered into the net via a defender to ice the cake on Capital's 5-0 triumph. It's one they'll look to repeat in 48 hours as these sides go at it again, this time at Petone Memorial Park, where one hopes WaiBOP will prove more competitive - a few more players with the tenacity and spirit of Olivia Hooper, one of very few home team outfield players who can hold their head high after this display, would serve their cause well. WaiBOP:     Candy; Muspratt (Mooar, 45), Byrne, Major (Sizer, 72), Trebes; McCloskey, Ollington, Hooper; Henderson, Heuvel (Neems, 46), Wisnewski (Reiri, 21 (Jones, 72)) Capital:     Simons (Gray, 88); Woodhead, Barrott (Watts, 76), Fibbes; J. Robertson, Dugan, Rolston (Catherwood, 72), Kondo, Boobyer (Ohlsson, 56); Wilkinson, M. Robertson (Wilford-Carroll, 31) Referee:     Kason Browning