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SWANZ Cup 1998
Tired Three Kings Prove Too Strong For Petone
by Jeremy Ruane
Three Kings United maintained their stranglehold on the SWANZ Knockout Cup at North Harbour Stadium on September 19, downing perennial finalists Petone 4-2 to become the first club to win the trophy for a second time.
United weren’t at their best in this match, the entire squad still feeling the effects of the gruelling week-long National Women’s Soccer Tournament which concluded just seven days previously. Throw in the fact that that also played a match on Tuesday evening, and their indifferent performance was perfectly understandable.
Yet they still managed to dominate the match against the Central League champions, both in terms of territory and chances created, although it wasn’t until the last six minutes of play had elapsed before their supporters could feel confident that the silverware would be taking pride of place at Keith Hay Park for another summer.
United threatened to run riot in the first half, creating a plethora of chances which, on a less nerve-wracking occasion, they would almost certainly have put away. In the first minute, the Cox sisters combined to slip the overlapping Jane Simpson through, but a moment’s hesitance allowed Gail Hall to avert the danger.
Pernille Andersen had the ball in the net after ten minutes, but the goal was ruled out due to Beth Clark being adjudged offside after coming back into the active area of play from such a position.
Andersen left three opponents reeling in the eighteenth minute, only to blaze her shot wide of the target, before seconds later, turning provider for Maria Wilkie at the climax to a flowing four-man move. Wilkie’s shot flashed inches past the upright.
A Helen Exler through ball picked out Andersen just shy of the half-hour mark, but the striker’s shot on the angle crashed into the sidenetting of Ingrid Bain’s goal.
The goalkeeper was left to pick the ball out of the bet in the 33rd minute, however, as one of several Marlies Oostdam corners, which proved the bane of Bain’s afternoon, finally enjoyed a suitable reward. Michele Cox headed the ball down, and Wilkie darted in by the post to fire the ball over the line, despite Bain’s protestations that she had managed to parry the shot to safety.
Exler headed another inswinging Oostdam corner just wide in the 37th minute before Petone, with their first attack of note, drew level five minutes before the interval. Three Kings failed to adequately clear a teasing Lisa Wiggett cross, and Toni Horne, lurking on the edge of the penalty area, sent a volley looping over the heads of Tarah Cox and goalkeeper Michelle Hodge to level the scores.
Inviting crosses from the versatile Maia Jackman, the final’s Most Valuable Player, and Oostdam went begging early in the second spell, as United turned up the pressure in search of a second goal. Newly-crowned Player of the Year Michele Cox spurned a golden chance to secure it in the 55th minute, firing wide from the penalty spot after being felled in the area as her mazy run was brought to an abrupt halt.
After Andersen had volleyed wide on receipt of a fine run-and-cross from fellow SWANZ international Jackman, United took the lead again in bizarre circumstances. Simpson, another of Three Kings’ six-strong contingent in the national side, sent forward a fifty-yard speculator which Bain came to meet, only for the ball to bounce over her head and into the net - 2-1.
This sparked a brief Petone revival, Jenny Patterson’s cross being scrambled clear by the United defence in the 62nd minute, which sparked a counter-attack featuring the speed of Wilkie. Her low cross to the near post was gathered at Andersen’s feet by Bain.
Not content with the scoreline, United poured forward in search of a third goal, and how the ball failed to cross the line in the 66th minute is anyone’s guess. Wilkie’s cross from the right beat Bain all ends up, but drifted beyond the far post. Renee Brookland was following in, and hit a screamer which crashed against the underside of the crossbar. The ball bounced down to Andersen, whose close-range header was somehow kept out by a very relieved Bain.
Her relief turned to delight in the 72nd minute, as Patterson was engulfed by her colleagues on netting Petone’s second equaliser of the game. The half-time substitute pumped in a thirty-yard free-kick which Hodge completely misjudged, the ball bouncing high into the net to tie things up at 2-2.
Back came United, a Jackman piledriver slicing past the post seconds before a curling Andersen free-kick was superbly saved by Bain. But the striker with 73 goals to her credit in twenty matches prior to this final at last found the mark six minutes from time, heading a curling Oostdam free-kick into the net off the underside of the crossbar to put Three Kings in front for a third time.
It was to be a lead they would not relinquish, for after Players’ Player of the Year Oostdam had produced a tantalising free-kick which demanded the very best saves from Bain, the twenty-one-year-old bent the ball home direct from the resulting corner to ensure Three Kings’ name would be engraved on the trophy in 1998, as well as in 1997.
Three Kings: Hodge; Simpson, Oostdam, Exler; Jackman, M. Cox, T. Cox, Brookland (O’Hara, 70); Clark, Andersen (booked, 65), Wilkie
Petone: I. Bain; Quinn, Hall, Horne; Wiggett, Sneddon, Tyson (Patterson, 46), Van der Vegt, Taylor; Woods, A. Bain (Sargent, 85)
Referee: Neil Fox
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