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04/07/04
Ruthless Three Kings Batter Bewildered Bay Olympic
by Jeremy Ruane
You have to have every sympathy for Bay Olympic’s Premier Women’s team.
They struggle each week to get enough players simply to put a team on the park at Premier League level, and the lack of support afforded the core players of the side and the coaching staff by the rest of the club can do little for their morale at the best of times.
Every once in a while, they find themselves faced with the added burden of taking on one or other of two of the country’s finest women’s sides around, namely Lynn-Avon United and Three Kings United, and end up playing the role of a rabbit frozen in headlights, more often than not.
That was certainly the case at Olympic Park on July 4, as Three Kings came to visit, with a place in the Uncle Toby’s Women’s Knockout Cup quarter-finals at stake.
The talent-laden opposition paid no heed to the plight of Bay’s bewildered battlers, and produced a ruthless display of flowing football to administer a 15-0 hiding, one which, but for the woodwork and the offside flag, could easily have threatened the competition record scoreline of 20-0 United set against Onehunga-Mangere United just last season.
It was a record result, however, but not for reasons Bay would care to recall - their heaviest-ever defeat in any top-level women’s match since first entering the Northern Premier Women’s League in 2001.
The game was all over as a contest inside the first eight minutes, the time it took for United to score their first two goals. Priscilla Duncan had a hand in both of them, the first seeing her send Sarah Ropati scampering away down the right in the third minute. Her first-time cross, taken in her stride, was inch-perfect for Sarah Gibbs to head home.
Five minutes later, Duncan sent Vicky Butterworth through the defence, and from eighteen yards, the striker picked her spot - 2-0.
Defiant defending by Bay thwarted Three Kings over the course of the next twenty minutes, allied to a string of close calls as the visitors followed their natural instincts to try and score more goals. Butterworth, Kim Rowney and Gibbs linked neatly to create the first of a stream of chances for Zoe Thompson, the first of which - a well-taken volley - was saved by Brooke Everson in the eleventh minute.
Butterworth then hit the post from the edge of the penalty after the Sarahs - Gibbs and Ropati - had teamed up, with Thompson firing this rebound wide. Moments later, Dana Humby sent Gibbs darting through Bay’s defence, only for Katherine Buchanan to divert her shot onto the post and out for a corner, which Gibbs duly took. Result - an inswinging effort which hit the same post!
Hannah Rishworth - a fine performance - and Butterworth linked up to present Thompson with her next opening, but the New Zealand striker couldn’t buy a goal for the duration of the first spell, Everson saving on this occasion, as she did from Duncan in the 27th minute, after Ropati and Rishworth had played a slick one-two on the right.
Another goal was inevitable, and in the 29th minute, duly arrived. Rishworth crossed to Duncan, who laid the ball back upon hearing Rowney’s call. Her twenty-five yarder ripped into the top left-hand corner of Everson’s net - 3-0, and a classic strike to boot.
The over-worked Everson kept Thompson, Ropati and Gibbs at bay in the next five minutes, while after Gibbs had headed wide following the combination play of Rishworth, Thompson and Ropati, Helena Thompson - one of the few Bay players who never stopped trying to contain the waves of teal-shirted attacks for the duration - got the better of namesake Zoe with a fine covering tackle.
The United striker’s response, five minutes before the interval, saw her motor past her namesake, and do everything right apart from execute the perfect shot - it flew high and wide of the far post, towards which Gibbs was charging. Upon seeing her, Thompson called across to her team-mate, "That was a cross for you - you should be taller!!"
Gibbs laughed it off, then proceeded to show her profligate team-mate what she should have done … namely stick another goal in the net - in the scorer’s case, the second of what was to become a career-best return of six goals from a single game. Duncan - an outstanding display - was the architect yet again, her slide-rule pass presenting Gibbs with a one-on-one opportunity, one which was afforded an
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accomplished finish.
From the kick-off, Bay’s Marisa Cox went for goal from half-way, but United’s Wendy Horneman was wise to that tactic, saving under her crossbar before sparking an attack which culminated in Thompson hitting the side-netting, seconds before Rowney had a superb goal denied her by the offside flag.
United’s inter-play during the first half had been quite outstanding at times, and it continued in the second spell. But this time, they threw in some clinical finishing for good measure - the bewildered Everson and colleagues must have been wondering what they’d done in a previous life to deserve the onslaught they were subjected to in the second half, for United were little short of rampant.
Within seven minutes of the resumption, they scored three goals. Thompson and Ropati combined for Gibbs to head home her hat-trick goal in the 47th minute, while sixty seconds later, the same player said "Thanks very much" upon receipt of a poor clearance by Everson.
After the over-worked Kiri-Lee Austin had thwarted Thompson, Duncan was to the fore once more, evading two challenges before playing Gibbs in down the left. Her cross cannoned off the back of the unfortunate Kay Capper and into the net - 7-0.
And no sign of any let-up, either. Butterworth sent Thompson careering through in the 56th minute, only for the striker to see her fierce drive crash against the crossbar - her frustration was palpable. But two minutes later, after Duncan sent her through on goal, Thompson unselfishly squared the ball to Gibbs to bundle home her fifth goal of the game.
"At last!" cried Thompson in the 61st minute, after she sent a shot crashing into the top corner of the net to reward the creativity of Butterworth, Rishworth and Humby. And still they pressed on.
After Gibbs had been denied another goal by the offside flag, Duncan scored a richly deserved goal with some aplomb - her thirty-yard screamer soared over Everson and into the roof of the net - 10-0 in the 67th minute.
Make that 11-0 a minute later, as Three Kings continued to swarm all over opponents, the heads of a number of whom had dropped long beforehand. Ropati was the source of the goal this time, her pass to Duncan seeing the midfielder’s effort parried by Everson. Gibbs, following in, rounded the stranded ‘keeper to net her sixth goal of the game, and twelfth in three games against Bay this season - the home team will be glad to see the back of her!!
Both goalkeepers were in action in the 71st minute. Everson pounced on a Thompson cross before Gibbs could net yet another, while the resulting clearance saw Selwyn’s charge downfield come to an end as Horneman saved at her feet - the Bay number seven was another to continue to fight the good fight long after the cause was a forlorn one.
United’s response was to increase their lead still further, seconds later. Petria Rennie was given the chance to stretch her legs down the right, and crossed for Thompson. Everson blocked her shot, but Ropati, following in, steered it goalwards, the goal being credited to her as the ball was going in when Helena Thompson slid in in a desperate attempt to keep out number twelve.
Eleven minutes from time, substitute Jo Barnett sent Thompson racing away, and the striker thrashed the ball inside Everson’s near post to double her tally for the day. Seconds later, she completed her hat-trick, coolly picking her spot beyond Bay’s luckless goalkeeper after United’s other substitute, Abby Erceg, had gifted her team-mate with a delightfully weighted through ball.
And still they pressed on, the substitutes linking to set up Duncan. She hit the post, then looked on as Barnett fired wide, and Erceg saw her effort saved by Everson. But four minutes from time, Bay’s worst nightmare was finally brought to an end by Thompson, who hooked home into an empty net to round off a fine move involving Erceg, Ropati and the overlapping Gibbs in fine style.
Bay Olympic: Everson; Buchanan, Austin, Thompson, Capper, Van Rixel (Gulliver, 46); Selwyn, Fitzjames, Buxeda, Periantal; Cox
Three Kings: Horneman; Dale, Humby, Rennie, Rowney; Ropati, Rishworth (Erceg, 64), Duncan, Gibbs; Thompson, Butterworth (Barnett, 68)
Referee: Pat Barrett
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