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SWANZ Cup 1997
Spectator Heaven! Coaching Hell!
by Jeremy Ruane
From a spectator’s point of view, the 1997 SWANZ Knockout Cup Final was a match made in heaven - how could a cup final with a scoreline reading 7-5 after ninety minutes’ frenetic action not be in contention for that tag?
But while Three Kings United’s triumph over Petone was absolute bliss to watch from the stands, down in the dugouts it was sheer hell!! When did a team last score five goals in a match and lose? How could a team who score goals for fun, while winning, concede over a third of the number of goals they have conceded all season in one remarkable match?
It was certainly that - you couldn’t afford to take your eyes off it, lest you miss a goal. There could have been two inside the first 52 seconds, as Three Kings started like a house on fire. Pernille Andersen and Beth Clark failed to find the net on these occasions, but the Northern Region finalists didn’t have long to wait to open their account.
Helen Exler hadn’t scored all season, but all that changed after just 200 seconds. Michele Cox’s corner picked out her run, and the defender unleashed a screamer on the volley past Petone’s ‘keeper, Tracey Caldwell, to open the scoring.
Anderson and Cox went close within minutes before Clark virtually settled the outcome with a seven-minute hat-trick. Amazingly, two were scored direct from corners, underlining the goalkeeper’s lack of confidence under the high ball. These were struck in the thirteenth and seventeenth minutes, while Clark swept home number four in the twentieth minute, after Cox and Andersen had combined to create the opening.
This made the scoreline 4-1, but Petone’s one, awarded in the fifteenth minute, should never have been. Kim Nye, the southerner’s player-coach, was allowed to run across goal and get in a shot. The attempt took a wicked deflection, looping wildly up onto the head of Kistina Murray, who was standing on the six-yard line keeping United’s ‘keeper, Rachel Howard, company. The striker’s header looped into the net, as Three Kings appealed for offside, unbelievably to no avail.
Andersen and Nye exchanged shots next, then Maureen Jacobson had a go. But when Petone found themselves 5-1 down after 31 minutes, the game appeared safe for United. Jane Simpson was the next to benefit from Caldwell’s high-ball horrors, the goalkeeper being beaten by the defender’s cross-shot after Cox’s delicate pass had put her team-mate in on the overlap.
United’s lead was seemingly unassailable, but their defence got a very rude message telling them it was anything but when two goals struck the Auckland team’s net within five minutes of each other in the moments leading up to the break.
Nye said “Thankyou very much” in the 37th minute, as Car Oostdam and Howard both said “Yours” near the edge of the penalty area, leaving the striker with an empty net into which she duly prodded the ball. Five minutes later, Jacobson hit a beauty on the half-volley into the far corner of the net, after a Petone corner was not dealt with adequately by Three Kings’ defence.
5-3 then, but incredibly, the scoring for the first half was not yet complete. Andersen rounded out forty-five minutes of breathless football by calmly slipping the ball past Caldwell, after Simpson and Clark had joined forces to engineer the opening in stoppage time.
Petone came out breathing fire in the second spell, with Nye, Murray and Jacobson all chancing their arm in the first five minutes. So, too, did Maria Wilkie for Three Kings. She never stopped running all game, either, while her pass in the 51st minute put Cox through. Out came Caldwell, but Cox slipped her shot beyond her ... and a foot past the far post as well!
Jacobson - she had a fine game - and Murray played a one-two in the 54th minute which the most-capped SWANZ international latched onto and fairly hammered past the wrong-footed Howard from twenty yards - 6-4.
Wilkie put Andersen in just past the hour with a perfectly weighted pass, only for Andersen to replicate Cox’s effort of ten minutes previous. Then after Simpson had been treated for a nasty-looking head wound, then attempted to extract revenge by scoring a second goal, Nye pounced on some hesitant defence by both Car Oostdam and Melita Harrison to burst through on goal. The two young defenders were relieved to see the striker pull her shot wide of the target.
By now, players from both sides were feeling the pinch from playing on a pitch made to measure for international football. So the two players on the park capable of carving open opposition defences with a single pass, Cox and Jacobson, were even more to the fore.
The former picked out Andersen in the 81st minute, only for Caldwell to save at her feet. Jacobson, four minutes later, went through on her own, and was in the act of shooting in the penalty area when Cox pulled off a timely tackle to foil a possible fifth Petone goal at this stage.
With a minute left, Cox gathered possession again and picked out the still full-of-running Wilkie. Her tireless efforts earned her the Most Valuable Player award, and her low cross was swept in on the far post by Andersen to seal Three Kings’ triumph.
The final say, however, was with Jacobson, who herself scored a hat-trick by pouncing on another Car Oostdam error to give Howard no chance with a clipped shot into the far corner of the net.
Seconds later, the Smokefree Referee of the Year in 1997, Bruce Grimshaw, blew his whistle to give Three Kings their first honour - the SWANZ Knockout Cup, by an unbelievable 7-5 scoreline over the runners-up for the third consecutive year, Petone. Quite a match!!
Three Kings: Howard; C. Oostdam, Harrison, Exler; Simpson, M. Cox, T. Cox, M. Oostdam (Neary, 85); Wilkie, Andersen, Clark (Jensen, 72)
Petone: Caldwell; Snow, Patterson, Ardin, Wagstaff (Sargent, 65); Horne, Jacobson, Wiggett, Sneddon; Nye, Murray
Referee: Bruce Grimshaw
Scoring:
Three Kings: H. Exler (3), B. Clark (13, 17, 20), J. Simpson (31),
P. Andersen (45, 89)
Petone: K. Murray (15), K. Nye (37), M. Jacobson (42, 54, 90)
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