An intriguing first half with the teams locked at 0-0 at halftime didn’t accurately portray the quality of the goals we would see in the second half as Jade Parris who had been guilty of spurning some chances in the first half got the opening goal before Leigh Aitken equalised for the Ponies with an excellent goal. Rebecca Burrows grabbed the lead for the Lilywhites straight back before an emphatic strike from Tayla O’Brien from the edge of the area locked in the points for the Madills Farm side.
THIS MATCH BROUGHT TO YOU BY SPIDER PERSONNEL
Match Highlights Video via Hudl
There was no respite for “The Ponies” after their heavy loss against Auckland United last weekend to now face defending champions Eastern Suburbs who after a slightly indifferent start to the season are now on a roll. Also perhaps slightly motivated by a loss in pre-season to “The Ponies” and of course it’s a derby game as well!
Ellerslie were dealt a blow in the week leading up to this game with Abby Murphy ruled out due to unavailability, but we were able to welcome back Courtney who was back after illness last week – there were no other player issues as Alejo continues to do a great job in conditioning and injury prevention.
With Suburbs likely to field their strongest lineup we knew we had to play much better than last week to get anything out of this game, and we had to not concede early (or preferably not at all) as we knew our backline would be under pressure from the triple threat of Hannah Pilley (in her last game), Tayla O’Brien and Jade Parris.
That proved somewhat difficult as Suburbs piled on a few chances in the first half, with the first one the result of a nice piece of play down the Lilywhites left side and ended up with a shot being pushed just wide of the back post.
Pilley had the next chance as she snuck in behind Deb who had tucked across to give cover, a Suburbs long ball from the back was just too high for Anita and it skipped through to Pilley, but an excellent recovery run from Debs put her under pressure and she hit her shot underpowered and right to Erin in goal.
That wasn’t going to be Erin’s last involvement, as she was quickly called into action again as a teasing through ball found Jade Parris, Erin had spotted the through ball early but wasn’t sure she could make up the ground, and her hesitation had left her in a tricky position as Jade lined up her shot – but using every millimeter of her long reach she pushed the shot which was destined for the top apex of the goal away for a corner.
Erin stopping a certain goal from Jade Parris (Photo: jcphotographynz.com)
That moment might have dwelled on the Suburbs two-time golden boot winners mind as she was played in again, this time with a clever reverse pass from Tayla O’Brien. Kim did well to recover and force Jade to take a shot from wide, but again her shot was underpowered and straight at Erin in goal.
While Jade Parris wasn’t having much luck with her shooting, she was finding plenty of space, this time she identified a large gap in the backline between Kim and Tayla and Rebecca Burrows found her with a perfect lofted pass. Credit to the Ellerslie fullback Tayla who had been caught out of position but she raced back and put pressure on Jade to take her shot, which she didn’t strike cleanly as it bobbled out of play wide of the near post.
The narrative continued however as Parris was in the right place yet again as a Lilywhites forward flicked on a lofted pass, which left Parris one on one with Erin, but she again fluffed her shot and Erin was able to easily gather the bobbling ball and kill the attack.
While Parris was clearly frustrated by not being able to find the finish she wanted, “The Ponies” were concerned as there was a large number of chances stacking up and it would have been foolish to think the Suburbs markswoman was not going to find her shooting boots sooner or later.
However there was enough time in the first half for Parris to have one more go – a Suburbs corner was cleared but no pressure from the Ellerslie side pushing out meant the ball was popped back into the box and found Parris with no marker at the back post, admittingly this was one of her harder chances as she had to side volley a bouncing ball, but her effort ended up being a side foot chip which lollipopped into Erin’s waiting arms.
Kim keeping an eye on Jade Parris (Photo: jcphotographynz.com)
That was pretty much halftime as the Ponies came off the field happy with the clean sheet but knowing they had to do a bit more to compete in the game – no real chances of note in that first 45 and a number of decent chances to Suburbs was not a good recipe for staying in the game.
The Suburbs goalkeeper at this point had really only come into play cleaning up through balls and dealing with a few crosses, but her high line had done a great job of compressing the large Michaels Ave field and made it tricky for Ellerslie to find space to unleash their top scorer Britany Cunningham-Lee.
Back to the subplot in the first half, which focused on Jade Parris and her profligacy in front of goal, like any good hollywood movie (think The Usual Suspects) there was a twist and 7 mins into the second half Parris opened her account for the game, and in the process started a flurry of goals.
I would love to describe this goal to you, however as luck would have it I not only missed seeing the goal live, I also missed it on camera so there is no official record of it, however with the narrative being the way it had been, it was probably her hardest chance of the game and she absolutely smashed it in… I dunno.
Goalscorer and Player of the Day Leigh Aitken (Photo: jcphotographynz.com)
Ellerslie were not happy conceding that goal and put their foot on the gas, desperate to find a way back into the game – then finally Britney managed to escape the prison of white shirts she had been living in, expertly wardened by Rebekah van Dort as she picked up a quick throw in from Annabelle – using her pace and strength Cunningham-Lee rolled her marker and drove past the Suburbs left back and delivered a perfect low hard cross to the middle of the goal, where Leigh had made an excellent run from the left and infront of her defender and guided the ball home just as the suburbs cover arrived – a classy finish to match some classy setup play.
The celebrations from the large Ellerslie crowd, including a rendition of “Oh Ellerslie” from the Iguana’s (Ellerslie’s #1 reptilian based team) was cut short as the Lilywhites showed the class of champions as they retook the lead within 3 minutes of conceding – this goal did have an element of luck to it, but the finish was all class.
After finding a strikers feet on the edge of the area a tackle from an Ellerslie player ricocheted the loose ball back to the pressing Burrows who was then tackled by another Ellerslie player but such was her determination she picked up that ricochet as well – with only Erin in goal to beat she smashed her shot past the Ellerslie keeper and into the top far corner of the net.
- (Photo: jcphotographynz.com)
There wasn’t long between that goal and the final goal for the Ponies to rue that defensive error as Tayla O’Brien won the ball in midfield off Lily (which is normally easier said than done) and lined up a shot from 3 or 4 meters outside the box with her right foot and sent a bullet into the back of the net which Erin couldn’t keep out such was the power.
That was the scoring concluded and the defending champions locked in all three points as they consolidated their 3 point lead at the top of the table, over Hamilton Wanderers who are “The Ponies” next opposition as we start the 2nd round of games.
Despite the last two losses the Ellerslie side have still a lot to play for, and this game against Wanderers will be a good test of our progress (and theirs) so far this season.
Photo’s credit of Jean Christopher Varnier (jcphotograhpynz.com)
COMET MATCH REPORT
*Dee Mosca replaced Deb Tutty, and Ruth Bowerman replaced Leigh Aitken, also some of the times of the subs are wrong.
Ellerslie Association Football Club 