Eastern Suburbs ended the five-year reign of Lynn-Avon United as National Women's Knockout Cup holders on July 1, prevailing 4-1 on penalties after the teams shared six goals in two hours of gripping football, four of these coming in extra time. That this match even went to extra time, let alone penalties, defies logic, because Lynn-Avon should have had the game wrapped up inside the first forty-five minutes, never mind ninety, and for that reason they only have themselves to blame for their early exit from this season's competition. Suburbs' forays into Lynn-Avon's half of the field during the first half of this rain-drenched cup-tie could be counted on the fingers of one hand, so rare were they. At the other end of the park, however, Ginny Tan was working overtime to keep the visitors' frequent attacks at bay. The first of these materialised in the fourth minute, when a sumptuous Petria Rennie pass down the left sent Sarah Gregorius scurrying clear of her pursuers. Tan raced off her line and superbly blocked the striker's effort at close quarters near the edge of the penalty area. The home team responded five minutes later. Rennie's sliced clearance of a Bobbie Moore ball forward allowed Melanie Gooch to scoot into the penalty area, where she unselfishly rolled the ball into Rebecca Tegg's path. The striker's first-time drive ricocheted off Stephanie Puckrin, who knew little about it, but reacted quickly to recover the rebound before any damage could arise. Roused, Lynn-Avon stormed back downfield, Vicki Rainbow leading the charge. Her pass sent Emma Kete racing through with just Tan to beat, but the advancing goalkeeper produced a superb save to her right as Kete looked to lash home from twenty yards. That the 'keeper held onto the shot made the save even more noteworthy. She was holding onto another seconds later, as Ria Percival cut in from the right and let fly, but Lynn-Avon finally found a way past Tan in the thirteenth minute. Rennie rampaged down the left and evaded the sliding challenge of Janet Groves before feeding Gregorius inside her. Tan blocked her shot, but the rebound fell to Rennie, who picked out Rebecca Parkinson lurking on the edge of the penalty area. With an unguarded net to fire into - Tan was still recovering her ground after thwarting Gregorius - the striker gleefully fired the cup holders in front. Six minutes later, a fine angled high cross from Jenny Carlisle, unleashed from just inside Suburbs' half, arced over both Tan and Kete, and found Gregorius racing in beyond the far post, from where she sent a cross-shot sizzling across the face of goal. In the 21st minute, another Lynn-Avon raid carved Suburbs up, this time down their left. Carlisle, Percival and Parkinson were all involved, with the last-mentioned turning the lunging figure of Groves and whipping in a cross for Kete. Her first-time shot was a tame one, and easy for Tan to deal with. Four minutes later, Gregorius careered down the left and rounded Moore before finding her progress thwarted. Not to worry, as Rennie was soon shifting swiftly through the gears as Suburbs' right flank opened up once more. The overlapping fullback whipped in a teasing cross-shot which fizzed narrowly past the far post. Either side of this effort, Suburbs created a couple of openings, the first of which saw Allysha Johnson whip in a wicked corner which fair sizzled across the face of goal and just beyond the incoming figure of Tegg before flying past the far post. Marlies Oostdam then fired a thirty yard free-kick over the crossbar in the 27th minute to remind the visitors that they were just a goal away from parity. Lynn-Avon heeded the warning and laid siege to the Suburbs goal for the next fifteen minutes, creating five quality openings in that time. The first, on the half-hour, stemmed from Percival, whose lovely angled ball down the right allowed Kete to outpace Johnson and whip in a cross which flew just beyond Parkinson and Tan. Gregorius picked up the pieces, but went for glory when better-placed team-mates were on hand inside her. A bad miss. Two minutes later, Rainbow played the ball wide to Percival, who took on Johnson and gave the full-back the run-around. Johnson, who was like the proverbial prize fighter who is repeatedly knocked down but keeps climbing off the canvas for more in this tie, lunged back at her opponent from behind, but Percival was wise to the challenge and hurdled it well before firing in a low cross from the by-line towards the near post, where Kete was arriving on cue. Tan, however, was anticipating the cross, and saved well at the incoming striker's feet. Three minutes later, Katie Hoyle - tireless in midfield - and Kete contrived to put Percival in again. Her teasing cross-shot drifted past the far post, unlike United's next two efforts. Hoyle and Parkinson slipped Percival through seven minutes before the interval, goal-side of Johnson in the penalty area. With just Tan to beat, and half the goal gaping in light of the goalkeeper having been caught out by Percival's blind-side run, a second goal looked a given, but Tan flung herself to her right to beat away Percival's effort, twisting her knee as she did so to produce a save from which Suburbs took great heart. A goal at that point would almost certainly have put

paid to the home team's prospects of cup glory for another year, but they went to the dressing rooms only a goal behind, again thanks to Tan. Dana Humby's corner four minutes before the interval saw the `keeper climbing high to punch the ball off the head of Parkinson, with Suburbs clearing the danger. The start of the second half saw a continuation of the first half's pattern, with Lynn-Avon pounding away in search of a second goal. Gregorius whipped in a cross from the right which Groves steered past her own post. Percival's resulting corner zoomed across the bows of Parkinson as she arrived on the far post looking to turn the ball home in the 49th minute. Five minutes later, Rainbow released Gregorius with a gorgeous pass, but her cross found the gloves of Tan, rather than the head of Parkinson, its intended target. Then Hoyle, Rennie and Rainbow teamed up to present Gregorius with another chance to cross, this teasing, curling effort deceiving all-comers and only just drifting past the far post. With their inability to score came a growing frustration, and those that were thwarting their progress suddenly became the targets of United's ire. Subsequently, niggly fouls started to creep into a game which had been played, to this point, in excellent spirit - the sight of Oostdam and United's Terry McCahill chatting amiably as they headed to their respective dressing rooms at half-time was ample evidence of this. While Grace Vincent was no angel where Suburbs were concerned, none of her infringements bordered on the dangerous, something which cannot be said of the challenges which left both Groves - who required treatment - and Flora McLeod on the deck. Kete and Carlisle were respectively responsible for these fouls, but worse was to follow in the striker's case. In the 65th minute, Kete lunged at Tan with studs showing as the pair went for the ball. The `keeper prevailed, but had the wind knocked from her sails in the process, with the striker quite rightly booked by referee Nigel Frost - not his best game by any stretch of the imagination - as a result of a foul borne largely from frustration. That Suburbs had equalised just seconds beforehand no doubt contributed to this display of angst. It was a bolt from the blue on this rain-soaked affair, and had its roots in Suburbs' star turn in this match. Tan smothered a drive from Hoyle, and hoisted the ball downfield. Vincent and Michele Cox combined to send the - to this point - rarely sighted figure of Tegg surging through the inside-left channel, with ball at toe and red-shirted opponents few and far between. Twenty-five yards out from goal, and with Puckrin - to this point even more anonymous than Tegg in terms of her involvement in the game - advancing off her line, Eastern Suburbs' goalscoring machine unleashed a thunderbolt. Puckrin got her fingertips to the shot, but there was no stopping this effort - it was far too hot to handle! Top far corner, no messing - 1-1. That stung Lynn-Avon into channelling their aggression into renewed attacking efforts of the goalscoring variety, rather than those of a less praiseworthy nature. Humby spurned a twenty-five yard free-kick chance soon after the equaliser, then delivered a 72nd minute corner to the far post, where Carlisle's header was blocked by Groves. The pair combined again five minutes later, Carlisle's header bulleting a yard over the bar, just seconds after Kete had pounced on a wayward Groves header and scooted clear, only to be chased down and tackled superbly by Sandee Hui. Parkinson pounced on the rebound, but shot straight at Tan. Seven minutes from full-time, Humby hoisted a free-kick towards the target from ten yards inside Suburbs' half. Gregorius, its target, directed a glancing header goalwards, the ball flashing beyond the diving figure of Tan but just past her right-hand post. Three minutes later, the last chance of note in the ninety minutes saw Kete, in the act of shooting, denied by Vincent's timely tackle on the edge of the penalty area, with Johnson making sure Parkinson couldn't take advantage of the loose ball. Sarah Fuller's introduction for the cramp-ridden figure of McLeod in the dying stages of normal time was to have a significant impact, sooner than anyone anticipated. For in the fourth minute of extra time, Suburbs took the lead through this most unlikely source. With nothing to lose, and all to gain, the home team went for broke in the last half-hour of this absorbing tie, Gooch's attitude in the 94th minute typical of their gung ho approach. Galloping down the left, she got the better of Carlisle not once but twice before getting to the by-line and firing a low cross into the goalmouth. Cue a brief scramble, which ended just as swiftly when a clearance cannoned off Fuller, ricocheting skywards before arcing towards the target from a crazy angle. Puckrin was deceived by the flight of the ball, and she wasn't the only Lynn-Avon player looking on in horror as the ball spun into the net to put Suburbs in front for the first time in the game. Their joy was short-lived. A mere sixty seconds later, Lynn-Avon were awarded a free-kick some

thirty yards out, and Humby couldn't get to the spot to tee up the ball quickly enough, so eager was she to avenge this blemish on United's copybook. Avenge it she did, in no uncertain terms! A quite unstoppable free-kick fair screamed into the top right-hand corner of Tan's net, much to the delight of a player scoring her first-ever goal in Lynn-Avon's colours. The teams turned around with the scoreline now reading 2-2, meaning fifteen minutes remained to find a winner via footballing means before the lottery of a penalty shoot-out determined the outcome. Melanie Hansen entered the fray at Kete's expense at this point, and it wasn't long before she was scampering clear down the left. She shot early and wide, however, unlike Parkinson in the 111th minute. Gregorius gathered the ball some thirty yards from goal, turned and set sail towards the target, quickly attracting the attentions of Johnson as she set her sights on goal. The defender dived in as Gregorius got to the edge of the penalty area, making contact with both player and ball, which spun free to the lurking figure of Parkinson. In the blink of an eye, she rifled home the 59th goal of her United career, a shot on the turn from ten yards to give Lynn-Avon a 3-2 lead - surely Suburbs couldn't come back from this blow! Hoyle fired over the bar from twenty-five yards in the 114th minute, after pouncing on a rare stray pass from Cox, who, apart from this instance, gave all present throughout this tie an object lesson in the seemingly lost art of playing the simple ball - nothing fancy, little flash, but exceedingly effective, particularly in terms of accuracy. Fittingly, it was a Cox pass which sparked the move from which the unlikely became reality. Gooch was the recipient of her team-mate's delivery, and promptly sought a way past Rennie down United's left. The defender was having none of it, however, and between the pair of them, the ball went out of play. Cue a show of hands and calls claiming possession, shouts for a throw-in and free-kick coming in from all sides. Little wonder referee Frost was in a quandary, for he initially signalled a throw-in, then changed his mind and awarded a free-kick to Suburbs upon sighting an indication from his assistant, Hengo Sioneloto, that Rennie had fouled Gooch in their tussle. Some thirty yards out from goal and right by the touch-line, Oostdam stepped up and whipped the set-piece into the near post area. Through the gathered throngs rose Hui, who sent her 118th minute header crashing into the top near corner of the net, much to the delight of her team-mates - 3-3, and penalties now a certainty. Suburbs, of course, had been down this road before. Having come back from the dead against Three Kings United a fortnight ago to progress to this stage of the competition on the back of a 3-3 draw and subsequent penalty shoot-out victory, the odds of their repeating the dose before this match would have rivalled winning Lotto's First Division prize! But beat the odds they did. Cox sent Puckrin the wrong way from the spot before Parkinson lashed her shot under the diving figure of Tan. Vincent aimed high as Puckrin went low, before Humby stepped up to the mark. Tan tipped her effort onto the crossbar - advantage Suburbs. Johnson walloped the ball fair down the middle to cement their lead before Tan rose to the occasion again, this time diving to her left to turn Gregorius' effort to safety. At 3-1, and with Oostdam and Tegg still to let fly for the home team, United's grip on the cup was now fingernail-like. One typically unerring strike from Suburbs' skipper later, and the twenty-seven match run of victories Lynn-Avon had amassed in this competition since their defeat at the hands of Ellerslie in the 2001 final was at an end. Suburbs' joy was unconfined, and understandably so. After losing fourteen successive league and cup matches to Lynn-Avon since entering the northern region's top flight in 2001, snatching a 2-2 draw in their last encounter in 2006 was a special moment for them, one which ultimately cost United their Northern Premier Women's League crown. Their first engagement in 2007 means even more, and has denied Lynn-Avon an honour they prize most of all - the National Women's Knockout Cup, which, in the absence of a club-based women's national league, stands as the symbol of New Zealand women's football supremacy at club level. Having come from behind to see off, via successive penalty shoot-outs, the two clubs who, between them, have won ten of the last eleven SWANZ Cup Finals (as the competition was previously known), what price Eastern Suburbs going on to claim a crown which none of the remaining eight teams - Claudelands Rovers, Glenfield Rovers, Massey University, Roslyn Wakari, Seatoun, Western and Western Springs being the others - has yet won? Suburbs:     Tan; Moore, Groves, Hui, Johnson; Vincent, Cox, Oostdam, McLeod (Fuller, 87); Gooch, Tegg Lynn-Avon:     Puckrin; Carlisle, Humby, McCahill, Rennie; Percival, Rainbow (Selwyn, 59), Hoyle, Gregorius; Parkinson, Kete (booked, 65) (Hansen, 106) Referee:     Nigel Frost