Eastern Suburbs claimed their first Lotto Northern Premier Women's League title since 2013 in some style at McFetridge Park on August 4, thrashing outgoing champions Glenfield Rovers 5-0 to end a run of three years as the competition's bridesmaids. The opening exchanges were fairly even, but from the moment Samara Dullabh fouled Tayla O'Brien on the quarter hour, the game swung Suburbs' way. For Jade Parris delivered a pinpoint long-range free-kick onto the head of captain Rebekah Van Dort, who sent the ball soaring over Ashleigh Cox and into the far corner of the net to open the scoring. Rocked by the goal, Glenfield took a few minutes to get back on an even keel, but began their pursuit of an equaliser in earnest in the 22nd minute. Kate Loye and Liz Savage combined to send Helena Kelderman hurtling down the right, from where she delivered a cross into the danger zone. Van Dort got her head to it and directed the ball towards Dayna Stevens, off whom it ricocheted goalwards. The striker followed in, but Corina Brown was always going to be favourite to reach the sphere first, and duly saved at the striker's feet. Seconds later, Savage and Shania McIntosh linked up to pick out Kelderman, who turned past Kate Carlton before lashing a twenty-yarder narrowly past Brown's left-hand post. From the resulting goal kick, Van Dort and Leah Mettam combined to present Parris with the ball just beyond half-way. The league's leading markswoman threaded a delicious pass through Rovers' rearguard to reward Hannah Pilley's angled run in behind the defence from right to left. A first-time shot would have seen the speedy striker double Suburbs' lead, as Cox hadn't got her angles right, but she took a touch to get the ball onto her favoured right foot, and that was all the time the goalkeeper needed to successfully dive at Pilley's feet. A sweeping Suburbs raid in the 28th minute was sparked by Kate Seatter winning the ball in midfield. She linked with O'Brien, who immediately brought Pilley into play. She laid the ball back to Erinna Wong, whose teasing cross arced just beyond Parris, racing into the goalmouth. Rovers retorted with a Dullabh-ignited raid, although it was Savage who was its heart and soul. Storming out of defence into the midfield area where she plays with such authority, Glenfield's captain swept past three opponents before playing in Geena Gross, charging in off the left flank. Wong's intervention foiled that particular plan. Straight away, Suburbs counter-attacked via the "P-Shooters", Pilley rampaging down the right before delivering a cross into the stride of Parris which she usually converts with her eyes closed. Perhaps they were on this occasion, because she completely fluffed her lines with this near post opportunity, and was then beaten to the loose ball by Cox. Parris looked to the heavens in disgust, but while divine intervention wasn't forthcoming on this occasion, a second Suburbs goal was just seconds away. Cox cleared the ball downfield, and Seatter again won possession for "The Lilywhites". Parris was the beneficiary of her pass, and the number ten played another telling ball through, this time for O'Brien's attention. Cox and the covering Sydney Bultitude converged on the striker, and successfully blocked O'Brien's attempt to score, but the ball rebounded perfectly into the stride of Pilley, who gleefully steered the ball into an empty net - 2-0 after 32 minutes. Rovers had to score next, and would have done in the 37th minute had Brown not launched herself skywards at the last second to tip Dayna Stevens' twenty-yarder over the bar under which it was dipping - a fine save, one made to look easy by the best 'keeper in the country, even though it wasn't given the ball came out of the sun. Glenfield couldn't reduce the deficit before the interval, but went close three minutes into the second spell when Stevens brought the ball out of defence before playing it wide into the stride of the overlapping Laney Strachan. She slipped a pass into the feet of the elusive Kelderman, who weaved a path towards goal before stinging Brown's gloves from twenty-five yards. The visitors responded by scoring a third goal two minutes later. Mettam had been cursing herself throughout the first half due to her repeatedly

wayward attempts to play the ball down the line. But this time, she got the recipe spot on, and cooked up a treat which Hannah Hoeksema devoured gleefully. The fullback picked out O'Brien with her pass and stampeded forward in anticipation of a return ball, which duly arrived into her stride. Mettam then got around McIntosh before delivering a buffet ball beyond all-comers at the near post, but not Hoeksema, ghosting in round the back. She calmly steered home to make it 3-0, and all but make the game safe for "The Lilywhites". At this point, Glenfield fell apart, and Suburbs should have scored twice more in as many minutes soon afterwards, with O'Brien - on receipt of Hoeksema's pass - and Parris - thwarted by Cox at close quarters - guilty of failing to capitalise on fine opportunities. It mattered not to the champions-in-waiting, however, for in the 57th minute, goal number four materialised. O'Brien's storming run through the inside left channel drew the defence and set up Pilley for a tap-in … and the feeling that this could turn into a rout if Rovers didn't get their act together in fairly short order. Thankfully, the outgoing title-holders managed to arrest their slump and offer something more than token resistance during the final half-hour. Brown plucked a Kelderman cross off the head of Gross, before the latter fired in a cross which arced just over the head of Rovers' leading markswoman. Cox then spilled a Parris cross - Savage got her 'keeper out of jail on this occasion, while the former age-grade international grabbed Lucy Carter's twenty-five yarder in the 67th minute. Rovers' game was summed up thirteen minutes from time by the finish of Stevens, who skied a terrific chance carved out by the persistent Kelderman - a strong front-line performance despite the inconsistencies going on behind her. Which were highlighted again inside the final ten minutes, as Suburbs looked to finish with a flourish. Seven minutes from time, substitutes Molly Bryans and Annie Byrne combined, the latter lashing an early shot across Cox and just past the far post. Parris then rattled the side-netting with an acute-angled shot on the turn, before Carlton - back to her defensive best in this match after last week's blemish - produced a super tackle to deny Loye in the act of shooting, as the midfielder looked to make the most of a Stevens cross. Suburbs delivered the coup de grace in stoppage time. Parris' corner was cleared to the edge of the area, where Carter was lurking with intent. Her piledriver was parried by Cox, the ball ricocheting skywards. What goes up must come down, and right underneath it when it did was Byrne, who joyously headed home from point-blank range to wrap up the scoring in Glenfield's heaviest defeat on home turf since May 31, 2009, when a Lynn-Avon United side boasting Cox and Savage in their ranks won by the same 5-0 scoreline. Suburbs' reward for their emphatic triumph was the title they have long coveted, just the second Premier Women's League crown they have won since the club's glory days in the women's game, when they won six titles in a row between 1975 and 1980 - Eastern Suburbs was the first truly dominant club in the country's foremost club-based league competition. None of the current squad was part of the club's last championship triumph in 2013, so that title-winning feeling is one they will all enjoy when they are presented with the trophy, most likely after next Sunday's home game against Papakura City. Coach Mauro Donoso does have previous, of course, having led Forrest Hill-Milford United to the title in 2014. In guiding Suburbs to glory this time round, he joins that exclusive club of coaches who've won the Premier Women's League title with two clubs - Dave Matthews and Andrew Clay are the only other coaches to have achieved this feat in the league's 47-season history. Glenfield:     Cox; McIntosh, Bultitude, Savage, Strachan; Dullabh, Jung, Loye; Kelderman, Stevens, Gross Suburbs:     Brown; Wong (Adams, 77), Carlton, Van Dort, Mettam; Hoeksema (Byrne, 70), Seatter, Carter; Pilley, O'Brien (Bryans, 66), Parris Referee:     Bridget Baker