New Zealand’s Young Ferns have as good as booked their place at September’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Finals in Trinidad & Tobago after handing Papua New Guinea a 9-0 hiding on the North Harbour Stadium Tigerturf on April 14. It was a far from impressive display by the Young Ferns, however. Compared to the quality in evidence throughout their double-figure demolition job on the Solomon Islands on Matchday One, this was very much a case of "After the Lord Mayor’s Show" - a very flat performance in which only the outstanding Sivitha Boyce and lively Evie Millynn, of the starting outfielders, are deserving of due praise. Yet it threatened, after the first twelve minutes, to become the rout to end them all! The Young Ferns started off like a house on fire, and were four goals to the good by this time, Holly Patterson affording them the ideal start when firing in off the far post in the third minute following good work down the left by Olivia Chance. After Millynn had seen Papuan goalkeeper Wene Laka save her first drive, and Kate Loye and Stephanie Skilton had combined to set up Patterson for a chance which she spurned, three goals in a four-minute burst put the result beyond doubt while some patrons were still making their way to their seats. Patterson burst into the penalty area on the right in the eighth minute and fired a low cross into the goalmouth which Laka parried, straight into the stride of the incoming Loye - 2-0. Within seconds, Megan Lee, one of three changes to the Young Ferns’ starting line-up, got the ball and fed Chance down the left. She delivered a hanging cross which allowed Patterson to leap above Laka and steer home number three. And in the twelfth minute, the brief blitzkrieg was concluded with a superbly crafted goal. Min Khanthee spread play wide to Katie Bowen, who linked with Millynn before surging forward on an overlapping run. Meanwhile, the midfielder played the ball to Patterson, who used Bowen’s run as a decoy while Skilton made her way through the inside right channel to receive a precisely timed pass which she rifled home into the far corner of the net first time from the edge of the area - a fine team goal. The Papuans were understandably shell-shocked at the sheer aggression the Young Ferns had shown from the outset, but they regrouped and for the bulk of the next half-hour, offered spirited resistance to their opponents, who continued to press for more goals but without the same degree of intensity and inventiveness with which they had commenced proceedings. Millynn chanced her arm three times from distance between the scoring spree and the twenty minute mark, but only drew a save from Laka on the last occasion, while the ‘keeper fielded a deflected shot from Hannah Carlsen in the 27th minute, before a timely Lavina Hola tackle saved the day as Loye looked to pull the trigger to cap off a self-inspired raid in the desired manner. An acrobatic volley from Chance cleared the crossbar by not a lot on the half-hour, before another fine move was ignited by the excellent distribution of Chloe-May Geurts. The Young Ferns number one has had very little to do in both matches so far, so when she does get the ball, what she does with it has to be quality - it certainly was on this occasion. Geurts saw Patterson setting off on a run down the

right, and picked her out with a precise volleyed  clearance which allowed the hat-trick chaser to play a one-two with Skilton before Millynn unleashed a super dipping thirty-yard volley which Laka did well to save, although in doing she denied the move the better fate it undoubtedly deserved. Within seconds, Bowen, playing her last game as a fifteen-year-old, rampaged down the right at pace before combining with Patterson, whose teasing cross sought out Chance, arriving on the far post. The retreating figure of Natasha Waa had other ideas, however, and cleared the danger from beneath her own crossbar. After both Chance and Skilton had been denied by Laka - the ‘keeper thwarted the latter in a one-on-one situation, the Young Ferns finally went nap five minutes before half-time. It was worth the wait, too - a beautifully flighted twenty-five yard chip from Millynn which arced delightfully into the far corner of the goal. A fine strike and a deserving scorer. Three minutes later, Millynn angled a ball through for Chance which Laka and captain Sandra Birum combined to scramble clear for a corner. The flank player was to have the last laugh, however, Chance’s corner being headed into her own net by the Papuan skipper to bring about the half-time 6-0 lead. The half-time interval saw Young Ferns coach Dave Edmondson give his young charges a rev-up they fully merited, and they responded with a brief burst of creativity immediately after the resumption. But after Chance had seen her cross grabbed by Papuan replacement ‘keeper Mystika Tekawi, and both Carlsen and Loye had blazed over from outside the penalty area, the home team fell back into the pattern of play which had permeated the bulk of the first half. They were roused from their lethargy in the 57th minute by Patterson, who completed her hat-trick in fine style - a cracking free-kick from some twenty-five yards on the angle which fizzed through Tekawi’s hands and into the back of the net. The ‘keeper made amends by grabbing a Skilton effort beneath her crossbar on the hour mark, after Carlsen, Bowen and Patterson had combined to good effect on the right. Five minutes later, substitute Brittany Dudley-Smith’s first involvement saw her linking with Skilton, whose cross, intended for another replacement, Ashleigh Ward, got no further than the goalkeeper’s gloves. Tekawi appeared to be quite adept in all aspects of her position, and certainly wasn’t lacking in confidence when it came to dealing with aerial threats - she plucked a Bowen cross from the sky in the 68th minute as if picking a plum off a tree! Definition of Murphy’s Law - you write down something complimentary about an aspect of a player’s performance, and within seconds, that very aspect is the source of a mistake! In this case, it was punished, too, by Dudley-Smith, who hooked the ball home on the turn after watching Tekawi spill a Millynn cross right in front of her - 8-0. That 69th minute effort would have been supplemented by a ninth goal seconds later but for sheer good fortune on the part of Tekawi. Skilton stormed down the right before crossing to the far post, where Ward was sliding in to turn the ball home. She did everything right, only to see the ball strike the prone figure of Tekawi and spin out for a corner. The Young Ferns’ opening game had been laced with one-touch passing aplenty, but not this match. Indeed, it wasn’t until the 74th minute when a move of such dexterity and precision was witnessed, and

the growl emitting from coach Edmondson - "It’s taken over an hour to produce that bit of football. Let that be your benchmark for the rest of the match" - was well justified. It wasn’t greatly heeded, however, although the Young Ferns certainly tried to aspire to it again when the opportunity presented itself. But all too often throughout this game, passes were over-hit or misdirected, and some of the combination play just didn’t hit the same level as had been evident on opening day. While it didn’t impact upon the outcome in this match, such inconsistency and a lack of quality simply can’t be afforded when faced with the likes of Brazil, Canada, Chile, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, North Korea, Venezuela and the host nation, all of whom have already booked their tickets for Trinidad & Tobago 2010, not to mention the countries still to qualify from Europe and Africa - three from each confederation. After Dudley-Smith had seen Tekawi smother her 77th minute shot at the near post, Grace Parkinson entered the fray with seven minutes remaining, and with her first touch flighted a twenty-yard free-kick against the crossbar. Skilton swooped on the rebound, but could only direct her volley straight at Tekawi. The Papuan goalkeeper then tipped an angled shot from Millynn round the post at full stretch after the eye-catching midfielder had hurdled a couple of challenges in the penalty area. And Millynn was to be denied again in the 87th minute, this time by the crossbar. Ward’s corner to the far post picked out the midfielder, whose header deserved better fate. Not that Dudley-Smith was complaining - she swooped on the rebound to wrap up the scoring, and leave herself in a tie with hat-trick heroine Patterson, both players having struck four goals in the tournament so far. The Young Ferns’ final match, which will confirm them as champions of the inaugural OFC U-17 Women’s Championship, will see them taking on Tonga at 3pm on Friday. The Tongans have lost both games at the tournament to date, their latest defeat a 5-0 reversal at the hands of the Solomon Islands in the day’s earlier match. Merina Philip Joe and Corina Hasi - who missed a completely open goal in the third minute and could easily have had a hat-trick in the first half-hour - scored twice in as many minutes to settle the Solomons’ nerves by the thirteen-minute mark. Elizabeth Malau made it 3-0 just after the half-hour, while 78 seconds into the second spell, Mirriam Oleasi guided home the game’s fourth goal. Ten minutes later, she hit the crossbar and saw her attempt to turn the rebound home headed off the line by Tania Silakivai. Substitute Ella Vakatao, who hit the post in the last minute, wrapped up the scoring with her first touch upon entering the fray twenty minutes earlier, the Solomons’ 5-0 win giving them a slight advantage over their final opponents, Papua New Guinea, whom they meet in the midday encounter on Friday. Young Ferns:     Geurts; Bowen, Boyce, Khanthee, Lee; Millynn, Loye (Parkinson, 82), Carlsen; Patterson (Dudley-Smith, 63), Skilton, Chance (Ward, 53) PNG:          Laka (Tekawi, 46); Ai (Kaski, 67), Birum, Hola; Waa, Steven, Obi, Kaikas (booked, 81) (Aidaboe, 86), Elijah; Bulum, ToRobert Referee:     Pari Oito (Tahiti)