Exactly one year ago, Glenfield Rovers inflicted Lynn-Avon United's heaviest ever home defeat upon the Ken Maunder Park outfit, so when the teams lined up for their opening day clash in the 2011 Lotto Northern Premier Women's League competition at the same venue on April 3, a variety of issues were at stake. That 7-0 thrashing was the springboard from which Glenfield ultimately relieved Lynn-Avon of their long-held Premier Women's League crown, so this match saw a reversal of roles for the visitors, for so many years the hunter. Winning the championship means Rovers are now the hunted, the team all-comers will seek to topple if they are to satisfy their own ambitions of sipping champagne from the Keith Hay Homes Cup come the end of the season. Come the final whistle, Glenfield had survived their first test in this regard, the title-holders prevailing 5-3 in an at times wild, at times scrappy but always absorbing affair which got off to a firecracker start - both teams were celebrating goals inside the first 150 seconds! Both teams had been active in the transfer market during the close-season, United more so than their opponents, but the absence through a thumb injury of regular number one Ashleigh Cox saw Kath Doubleday deputising twixt the sticks for the home team, and that lack of assuredness in such a key position was, without question, a factor in the final outcome of this encounter. Indeed, Doubleday it was who was responsible for the opening goal, scored after just 35 seconds by Rovers' debutant, Steph Skilton. The former Three Kings United front-runner took full advantage of a poor goal-kick by the 'keeper to gently lob the ball over her head and into the net. The visitors were still celebrating when United's new winger, Tayla O'Brien, zoomed down the right and crossed to the near post, where Casey Ridsdale was arriving on cue. The midfielder drilled her shot straight at Pam Yates, who stood not a prayer of stopping the next shot directed towards her goal, Amber Hearn's twenty-five yard chip soaring over her head into the net. Rovers' rearguard pleaded for a free-kick, claiming - with some justification - that the prolific Lynn-Avon striker had employed foul means rather than fair to engineer the opening from which she despatched the equaliser. Referee Pat Zhang ignored their protests - 1-1, with the game just two-and-a-half minutes old. The helter-skelter start continued two minutes later. Skilton - a real livewire down the left throughout proceedings - played in a low cross behind the out-of-sorts Dana Humby for Jamie Hackett's benefit. The striker's acute-angled shot forced Doubleday to kick the ball away by her near post. After this lively opening stanza, play soon turned into an arm wrestle, the lack of quality football in this phase of play more in keeping with what one would expect of an opening day joust between two teams who are still gelling as competitive units. Gradually, however, Glenfield began to get the upper hand, and after debutant Terri-Amber Carlson had headed a good chance wide on receipt of Rebecca O'Neill's 23rd minute cross, the visitors regained the lead sixty seconds later. Bridgette Armstrong - she played well on her return to top-flight football - launched a throw-in into Lynn-Avon's goalmouth which gave Humby and new signing Sivitha Boyce no end of problems. Neither dealt with it adequately, much to the undisguised glee of O'Neill, who steered a fifteen-yarder into the top far corner - 2-1. United weren't going to take that lying down, and promptly sought a swift riposte, Hearn again the instigator. This time, she linked up with Ridsdale, who crowned a surging run from midfield with a rasping twenty yard drive which Yates tipped round the post. Ria Percival, who impressed in her new central midfield role, whipped in a wicked corner which needed the merest touch to engineer a 26th minute equaliser. None was forthcoming, but after Ridsdale had dragged a shot wide seconds later, Percival won the ball in midfield and sprayed a peach of a pass into O'Brien's stride. Her cross found Hearn striding onto the ball, but Yates was equal to the striker's shot. Glenfield's response to this 28th minute effort was to increase their lead on the half-hour. More of Skilton's fruitful labour was this time rewarded after Carlton had seen her point-blank range effort thwarted by a combination of defenders and Doubleday. Sarah Gibbs was following in and delighted in stabbing home the loose ball. Better was to come from the marauding midfielder six minutes later. Carlson and O'Neill worked an opening for Katie Bowen on the right which saw the overlapping fullback get the better of Boyce near half-way, then Humby inside the Lynn-Avon penalty area, despite the defender having a distinct head start. Skilton swooped on the sphere and steered it into the stride of Hackett. Doubleday produced a fine parried save, only to see Gibbs gliding in on the far post for another tap-in - 4-1. Hearn growled audibly, Percival too - the Football Ferns duo weren't best pleased with the substandard efforts taking place behind them, and rightly so. A Lynn-Avon defence minus Melissa Ray's indomitable presence was proving a porous one, and the captain may well need to return to its heart to best serve her team, no matter how great her personal desire to follow her attacking instincts. For in this match, Ray was playing in a very advanced role - only Hearn, of those in red, started further forward. And Ray it was who sparked United's bid to reduce the deficit before the interval, picking out O'Brien with a pass which invited the winger to whip in a cross.

It flew beyond Hearn, but Megan Lee was charging forward in behind the striker and met the ball with a fine strike, only to be denied by the combined efforts of Yates and the fast-retreating Bowen. Rovers responded through Skilton, who stood up Humby a treat in the 39th minute before picking out Carlson with a cross. Doubleday thwarted the midfielder on this occasion, but the newly capped Football Fern was soon in the thick of things again, crafting an opening which allowed her to release Gibbs down the left. Her cross zoomed across the bows of the incoming Skilton, and on across the face of goal. On the stroke of half-time, Lynn-Avon reduced the deficit. Rachel Head's throw-in was laid off by Ray into Lee's stride, and she hit a vicious dipping volley which arced over Yates' head and crashed against the bar. Hearn was following in, and bundled the ball home at the second attempt - 4-2. A half-time pep-talk from coach Craig Alexander had the desired effect on Glenfield, who bristled with energy from the start of the second half. After breaking up a Lynn-Avon attack and surging forward before testing Doubleday with a solid drive, Armstrong turned defence into attack in the 52nd minute with an early ball forward. Hackett was alive to the prospects it presented, unlike Humby, who was caught flat-footed - she was anything but her usual reliable self in this match, a fact which didn't go unnoticed by new coach Mauro Donoso, who substituted her seconds later. By which time Hackett had made the score 5-2, the striker taking full advantage of Humby's lapse to scamper clear and execute an accomplished finish beyond Doubleday's despairing dive. After the hat-trick-hunting Hearn had gone down in the area under the challenge of the irrepressible Katie Hoyle - her penalty appeal didn't match referee Zhang's interpretation of events, Glenfield lost Hackett to an ankle injury, a scything tackle curtailing the striker's afternoon far earlier than planned. Cue Hannah Wilkinson, who wasted little time in getting up to match-speed. Caitlin Smallfield and Bowen combined to present the newcomer with a shooting chance in the 57th minute, and while she miscued it, Skilton was close at hand. So, too, was Doubleday - the 'keeper saved at close quarters. Further substitution-induced breaks in play followed, with only one prompted by injury. Briony Fisher looked a very unhappy camper as she was carried from the park, her knee the source of her angst. One substitution was tactical, and a telling one, for Hoyle's withdrawal invited United to take up the challenge of getting back into the contest, an opportunity denied them by the midfielder's sheer presence and tenacious work-rate while policing the area in front of her defensive quartet, a role the Javier Mascherano of New Zealand women's football performs with almost metronome-like consistency for club and country. Hearn, in particular, relished the extra freedom afforded her by Hoyle's absence, and wasted little time in taking the game to Glenfield, seemingly single-handedly at times. Her right flank raid in the 67th minute culminated in a whipped low cross which Yates somehow allowed to squeeze under her body. Much to the 'keeper's relief, salvation was at hand in the form of O'Neill. Six minutes later, O'Brien and Percival combined to release Hearn to the left-hand by-line, from where she lashed a cross-shot across the face of goal. Twenty- and thirty-yard strikes - the first a quickly taken free-kick - followed from the fiery number nine, but a third goal, for now, proved elusive. Ray and Hearn teamed up in the 77th minute for Hannah Carlsen's benefit. The young substitute saw Yates parry her shot, with the 'keeper recovering to get a hand on the ball just before the fast-approaching Hearn could swoop to score. Hearn was again the provider three minutes later, a gorgeous angled ball inviting Carlsen to race through with just Yates to beat. The sight of the 'keeper approaching at a rate of knots appeared to put the midfielder in two minds as she pursued the ball, and that hesitance proved decisive, the ball bisecting Carlsen and Yates en route for a goal kick. Glenfield were afforded a rare respite from defensive duties nine minutes from time when Wilkinson rampaged down the left into the penalty area. Substitute Natalie Wimbrow's tackle was far from her finest - it was clumsy, ill-timed, and, given it instantly curtailed Wilkinson's progress, a stonewall spot-kick if ever there was one. Referee Zhang thought otherwise - he was in the minority on this occasion. After Hearn had shot early but wide on receipt of a Ray pass, Armstrong, with another surging run out of defence, prompted a last-ditch save from Doubleday, the 'keeper reacting swiftly as the defender's shot made a bee-line for the gap by her hear post. It was Rovers' last raid, but more were forthcoming from United. A Percival free-kick was headed out by O'Neill to O'Brien, who may well have muttered "Oh bother!" under her breath as her volleyed effort careered over the crossbar. Hearn was not to be denied the tenth hat-trick of her Lynn-Avon career, however, and claimed it with what was almost a mirror image of the game's opening goal in stoppage time. A poor goal kick from Yates reached O'Brien who played in her goal-hungry team-mate. A deft lob, and the final 5-3 scoreline was a reality. Lynn-Avon:     Doubleday; Fisher (Wimbrow, 63), Humby (Seatter, 52), Boyce, Head; O'Brien, Percival, Ridsdale, Lee (Carlsen, 59); Ray, Hearn Glenfield:     Yates; Bowen (George, 60), Duncan, O'Neill, Armstrong; Carlson, Smallfield, Hoyle (Hogg, 68), Gibbs; Hackett (Wilkinson, 54), Skilton Referee:     Pat Zhang