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03Aug17
Superior "Swans" Fire Four Past Ferns
by Jeremy Ruane
The Football Ferns Development Squad met their match in no uncertain terms on the North Harbour Stadium Tigerturf on August 3, copping a 4-0 hiding from the best team they've faced this season, U-17 Conference leaders Forrest Hill-Milford United.
"The Swans" were quickly into their stride, Anna Leat forced to save at the feet of Johnny De Silva just three minutes into the contest. Five minutes later, the same player fired a tame effort at Leat after Ibrahim Khatlab and Cole Phillips combined on the left, while Jake Tucker only just failed to get on the end of a beautifully weighted free-kick from Laith Al-Khalisy sixty seconds later.
A wayward Liz Anton pass presented Phillips with the chance to cause chaos coming in off the left flank, a task he accomplished with aplomb before setting up Josh Coe for a twenty yard drive which Leat smothered well.
The Ferns mounted a rare raid in the fourteenth minute, Kate Carlton - great to see her sporting a silver fern once again - working a one-two with Jana Radosavljevic before lobbing a cross over all-comers for Grace Jale, who lashed her shot narrowly past the post.
"Wait on. Who's that?", I can hear you muttering. Midfielder Radosavljevic is a Serbian U-19 international who spent much of her youth in the Lower Hutt area, specifically at Waterloo School and playing for Petone, before returning to the land of her birth with an eye to forging a career in the game in Europe.
She is currently on a three-week trial as part of the Football Ferns' programme, with an eye towards playing her senior level international football for New Zealand, very much along the lines of Rory Fallon, who was an English age grade international before heeding the All Whites' call.
She wasn't afforded much chance to shine in this encounter, with the bulk of the action taking place in the Ferns' defensive third. Leat's diving save thwarted a Phillips drive in the seventeenth minute, the same player blazing wide five minutes later after Zavier Anderson picked out the run of Damien Dredericks in between Anton and Carlton.
Only Meikayla Moore's fine covering run thwarted Dredericks just before the half-hour mark, after Carlton had been caught in possession by Phillips, to which the feisty fullback responded by linking with Radosavljevic again eleven minutes before half-time.
Their one-two allowing Carlton to hurdle a challenge before whipping a gem of a cross into "The Swans" goalmouth, only to find no blue-clad colleagues on hand to do it justice.
United weren't to be denied, however, and after Khatlab had evaded Katie Rood's challenge and sent a dipping twenty-yarder narrowly over the bar, the goal the league leaders had been threatening finally materialised five minutes before half-time.
The source was another Al-Khalisy free-kick from the left, invitingly flighted to allow De Silva to dart in across the box and guide his close-range header home - a deserved deadlock-breaker from, all round, a very solid-looking side.
After Dredericks' twenty-five yarder had been denied by the busy figure of Leat, Rood was afforded some rare attacking air and exploited it well, evading a couple of challenges only to shoot tamely at United goalkeeper Luke Schaffer-Swan on the stroke of half-time.
The second spell was seven minutes old when "The
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Swans" doubled their advantage. A corner was eventually cleared to Al-Khalisy some twenty-five yards out, from where he uncorked a sumptuous first-time volley which fair screamed into the top left-hand corner of Leat's net, the 'keeper powerless to do anything about it - a quite superb strike!
Four minutes later, a foul on Moore by De Silva wasn't spotted by referee Wendy McNeely, who had to cope with an increasingly willing half of football in which the Football Ferns Development Squad proved themselves no shrinking violets - they were more often perpetrators than persecuted where the foul count was concerned.
On this occasion, they survived thanks to Carlton, whose intervention averted the danger posed by De Silva's low cross into the danger zone. Six minutes later, the striker eventually got the better of Anton before seeing Leat smother his shot.
Just prior to this, the Ferns had produced their best move of the match. Saskia Vosper caught Jacob Stead in possession, with Jane Barnett swiftly taking over before linking with Radosavljevic, Rood and the tireless Aimee Phillips, who ran her socks off for the cause for little reward in attack.
On this occasion, she nearly got that reward, outfoxing an opponent in the penalty area only for Schaffer-Swan to block well at her feet. And in the 68th minute, only the offside flag denied Phillips a goal her unstinting efforts deserved, Hannah Blake having strayed offside in the build-up.
By this time, "The Swans" had scored a third goal to put the result beyond doubt. Moments after taking over from Leat in goal in a pre-arranged substitution, Nadia Olla called and came out of goal to claim Jacob Caldwell's flighted free-kick.
She failed to gather the sphere, however, Phillips deftly flicking it between the retreating figure of Anton and the approaching goalkeeper to send the ball bouncing into the untended net - 3-0.
This roused the Ferns into life as an attacking unit, and they unquestionably held the upper hand throughout the final quarter of the contest. Nineteen minutes from time, Rood saw her shot blocked to safety following a Barnett free-kick, while a Rood-inspired raid six minutes later culminated in Phillips' gorgeous flick-on, presenting Sammi Tawharu with the chance to score.
Schaffer-Swan saved bravely at her feet, and twice saved from Phillips inside the last five minutes, the first opportunity arising from the toiling of Rood, Malia Steinmetz - despite her aching calves - and Tawharu to create the opening.
The final word belonged to "The Swans", however, the league leaders wrapping things up in stoppage time through Dredericks, who curled the ball home around Olla after De Silva, despite being held up by Moore, was able to pick out his team-mate beyond the retreating figures of Anton and Vosper.
The 4-0 scoreline marks the heaviest defeat the Football Ferns Development Squad has suffered in this Conference campaign, but there's no disgrace in losing to this Forrest Hill-Milford United side, easily the best faced by Gareth Turnbull's charges in this campaign.
Dev Squad: Leat (Olla, 63); Carlton (Brown, 63), Anton, Moore, Vosper; Steinmetz (booked, 66), Jale (O'Brien, 63), Radosavljevic (Blake, 63), Rood; Barnett (Tawharu, 73), Phillips
FHMU: Schaffer-Swan; Caldwell, Middeldorp, Anderson, Khatlab; Tucker, Al-Khalisy, Handley, Phillips; De Silva, Coe. Subs: Alrufaie, Dredericks, Rumney, Mirams, Stead
Referee: Wendy McNeely
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