A penalty on the stroke of half-time saw Australia's Junior Matildas score a 1-0 win over New Zealand's Young Ferns in the final game of the Future Stars Invitational Tournament on North Harbour Stadium's outer oval on February 2. The result leaves the Kiwis still searching for their maiden victory over international opposition as they prepare to host the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Finals in October. In a match from which New Zealand should have got at least a share of the spoils, if not a long overdue victory over trans-tasman opposition, the Young Ferns began strongly, with Australian goalkeeper Casey Dumont saving twice in sixty seconds in the eighth minute. On the first occasion, she saved at the feet of Sarah McLaughlin after Claudia Crasborn, Nadia Pearl, Leah Gallie, Annalie Longo and Hannah Wall opened up the Junior Matildas' right flank, while the visitors' captain then turned away a stinging Gallie twenty-five yarder to keep the Young Ferns at bay. Australia's response wasn't long in coming. Teigan Allen turned Bridgette Armstrong on the left and whipped in a cross. Briony Fisher hooked the ball clear, but only as far as Tameka Butt, whose eleventh minute volley flashed wide of the near post. That was Fisher's last act of note, for in the eighteenth minute, she found herself studying the sky from the vantage point of a stretcher … that is when she wasn't grimacing with the pain from suspected broken ribs, New Zealand's captain having found herself the unwilling filling in a trans-tasman sandwich, as made by Charlotte Wood and Allen. Fisher joined ACL victim Rosie White - unbelievably the fifth such injury suffered by a New Zealand women's football international in the last calendar year - as major casualties of the tournament, and the captain's premature departure left the Kiwis in a bit of a lurch playing resources-wise, with Rebecca Brown becoming a makeshift centre-back to accommodate fullback Anna Fullerton. The reshaped rearguard was given a few minutes to get up to speed, while their attackers, with Longo celebrating her New Zealand Herald Junior Sports Awards recognition with a typical all-action display, put the pressure on their opponents. Only McLaughlin managed to get shots away, with both her twenty-five yarders failing to trouble Dumont unduly. The Young Ferns were about to encounter a problem from an unlikely source, however - officialdom. Bookings in women's football matches aren't exactly regular occurrences, so to see six in a single fixture, and five of them to local players, didn't exactly endear referee Chris Kerr to anyone present. Longo and Fullerton were his first victims, and Jessica Rollings, Gallie and birthday girl Caitlin Campbell - this was a celebratory card she never envisaged! - all followed as the official, while rightly approaching the match as if it was a men's fixture, revealed a genuine shortcoming in his officiating style by doing so. Female footballers, unlike their male counterparts, are far more responsive to and accepting of prudent man-management than the more confrontational approach so often applied (out of necessity) in the men's game, and the odd quiet word here and there from Kerr would have been far more appropriate in handling the bulk of the instances for which he chose to issue cards in this fixture. Back to the action. Butt mounted a rare Australian raid down the right in the 25th minute, and picked out Allen with her cross. Her snapshot on the turn fizzed a yard over the crossbar, while a McLaughlin effort at the other end of the park six minutes later, on receipt of Gallie's precise through ball, had the beating of Dumont but crept a mere foot past her left-hand upright. Next it was Pearl's turn to chance her arm from distance - she wasn't far away after Longo's enterprising burst - while eight minutes before half-time, the Junior Matildas commenced a spell of sustained pressure on New Zealand's goal which had its just reward in the end.

It began with a Marianna Tabain corner, which Armstrong headed clear, but only as far as Butt. She volleyed over the crossbar in the 37th minute, then looked on two minutes later as Emily Van Egmond surged through before slipping substitute Sophie Hogben into the clear. Wood saved at her feet. Butt was then foiled in a one-on-one by New Zealand's goalkeeper - Allen curled the loose ball just past the far post, while in the 42nd minute, Butt was again the scourge of the Young Ferns, as she battled her way into the penalty area on the left, where she was unceremoniously upended by Fullerton - a spot-kick was the only conceivable outcome. Up stepped Butt, who lashed the ball high. It hit the crossbar, but the Australian playmaker was afforded a let-off - Wood was adjudged to have moved off her line before the kick was taken. Cue a retake, this time with Tabain hovering over the ball. She sent Wood the wrong way with a perfectly executed spot-kick - 1-0 Australia. With their Kiwi opponents reeling from this blow, the Junior Matildas looked to twist the knife before the half-time whistle. Butt hit the outside of the post with a twenty-yarder which had Wood beaten all ends up, while Hogben rattled the side-netting before forcing a superb full stretch fingertip save from the New Zealand goalkeeper with the last kick of an eventful first half. The second half began with the Young Ferns very much in the ascendancy. McLaughlin and Longo both went close with efforts from just outside the penalty area, while in between times, a 47th minute McLaughlin corner picked out the head of the hard-working Gallie, who met it in bullet-like fashion. Linda O'Neill was superbly positioned to clear off the line, much to Australia's relief. Their response was, inevitably, led by Butt - she had a massive game in the green and gold of her country. On this occasion, she released Allen down the right, and after she had evaded a challenge, picked out the completely unmarked figure of Samantha Kerr with her cross. With just Wood to beat, the midfielder hit the post - a real let-off for the Young Ferns. After Wood had dealt with further efforts from Butt and Allen, and McLaughlin had chanced her arm with a chipped free-kick from twenty-five yards at the other end of the park, to no avail, New Zealand's goalkeeper saved at the feet of Kerr just shy of the hour mark, as she dashed onto a through ball from Butt. The final half-hour saw the Young Ferns very much in the ascendancy, as they sought an equaliser against their trans-tasman rivals. Fullerton's long throw-in to McLaughlin saw the striker's shot on the turn blocked, but the rebound fell kindly for Longo, who let loose a screamer. Flinging herself to her left, Dumont saved in spectacular fashion. Seconds after Armstrong had thwarted Butt's progress on the counter-attack, Rollings and Longo linked up to play Lauren Mathis in on the right. The lunging figure of Van Egmond blocked her shot for a corner, which McLaughlin delivered to the far post. Armstrong's header careered across the goalmouth, with no-one able to turn it home. The resulting goal-kick sent Butt buccaneering downfield once more, and she held off Longo's challenge before feeding Allen, whose drive was capably dealt with by Wood, New Zealand's custodian repeating the dose some ten minutes later to thwart both Jenna Kingsley and Hogben. Seconds prior to that, the Young Ferns came desperately close to levelling the scores, fifteen minutes from time. Lauren Murray had been unleashed on proceedings, and the lively striker gathered the ball on half-way before setting off downfield and linking with Rollings. The winger worked a one-two with Longo before slipping the ball into Murray's path, as her fellow substitute doubled round on the left at pace. Without breaking stride, Murray hit a full-blooded thirty yard rocket which screamed towards the top right-hand corner of Dumont's goal, only for the `keeper to just get her fingertips to the ball and tip it onto the crossbar. New Zealand were, by now, wondering what they had to do to score, and they were pressing constantly for the leveller, a situation which left

them vulnerable to the counter-attack. Kingsley led such a raid two minutes from time, but both she and fellow substitute Tara Andrews - the tournament's youngest player - were thwarted by the combined efforts of Wood and Yumi Nguyen, who caught the eye in her only - and brief - tournament appearance. Via such threats, the Junior Matildas were able to hold off the Young Ferns' attempts to level the scores, and the final whistle saw the beaten team slump to the ground in despair, having given everything they had but still come up short against a team which is already out of contention for this year's U17 Women's World Cup Finals. Young Ferns coach, Paul Temple, was understandably disappointed with the outcome, but not the display of his young charges. “That was far and away our best performance of both this tournament and the Korean series. “I'm very pleased with today's effort - we put Australia under a lot of pressure, gave it a go, and made some big strides in our development as a team. And organisation-wise, we got better as the tournament went on. “But we need to be fitter and much stronger. We need to focus on getting to a world class level over the course of the next three months, and for that to happen, the players will have to work like they've never worked before. But these girls will be ready for that challenge - they've got a lot of bouncebackability!” On the tournament itself, Temple was understandably upbeat. “It's been superb value for us, and for the public. Germany and the USA put on some great footballing displays, and to have the two leading women's footballing nations here is a privilege. To play them locally is such a great experience - it's certainly whetted the appetite for the Women's World Cup! “They are both class acts, and much bigger and stronger than ourselves. They're the benchmark, and we're a few levels behind them at present. I don't think we're that far off the first of those levels, though, and we're going to give it everything we can to get to that standard”. The Future Stars tournament has greatly aided the host nation's cause, in terms of giving them opportunities to perform against overseas opposition, learning what and where their weaknesses are, and what they need to concentrate on to improve in key areas. It's also seen a handful of players stand up and be counted, as Temple explains. “Of our opponents, Australia's Tameka Butt was excellent, while their goalscorer today, Marianna Tabain, is a bright prospect. Germany had any number of leading players - it's hard to single one out. But Svenja Huth, their striker, caused problems with her clever moment. “The USA's central defender, Crystal Dunn, is simply excellent. She may not get the plaudits for what she does, but she's just so good, and athletically superb. Julia Roberts is a decent player, too, while the players considered Tani Costa very hard to mark - a real star”. “From our perspective, it was a real shame we lost Briony Fisher so early in today's game. She's an outstanding centre back, who defends so well and is a good leader. Hannah Wall was asked to play in a number of different areas, and was great value to the team. And both Annalie Longo and Rosie White - a real shame to lose her to injury also - were real livewires in the middle”. New Zealand now return to the training grounds for the next few weeks at least, as they continue their preparations for the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Finals, which take place between October 28 and November 16. New Zealand:     Wood; Brown (Nguyen, 84), Fisher (Fullerton, 18 (booked, 30)), Armstrong, Crasborn (Rollings, 46 (booked, 59)); Mathis, Pearl, Gallie (booked, 70) (Campbell, 72 (booked, 74)), Wall; Longo (booked, 27), McLaughlin (Murray, 70) Australia:     Dumont; Tabain (Wynne, 84), O'Neill, Popovic, Clifford; Butt, Mastrantonio (Hogben, 28), Van Egmond, Bolger (Kingsley, 70 (booked, 79)), Kerr (Andrews, 84); Allen (Calder, 90) Referee:     Chris Kerr