Waiuku Women's Premiers Continue to Fly the Flag

After a good win in their first match of the season, week two on the pitch saw further promising results for the Waiuku Women's 1sts with a strong 5-0 victory over Bay Olympic.

Only a few minutes into the game, following a sequence of authoritative play up the left between the midfield and strikers, left winger Teresa Thom set the pace with her first goal of the season; a brilliant shot into the top right corner. Shortly after this, a penalty was awarded to Waiuku, which Sandie Ralph put away with a solid strike along the ground into the left corner.

The Blues continued to work well together through the remainder of the first half, with plenty of succesful strings of passes starting from the back line, between the central midfield and wingers and on up to the strike force. Half an hour into the game the third goal came after a ball through from Kathryn Oliver, beautifully collected by Sandie up front, who promptly turned on the spot and claimed her second goal of the match.

In the second half, coach Cody Ralph switched a number of players around and made several substitutions, including sending two members of the Waiuku Women's Reserves, Shanelle Partridge and Desiree Rickard, onto the field to keep the team fresh. Their contributions were highly valued, with Shanelle stepping in confidently to hold the backline and Desiree putting her speed to use in the strike force and pressuring Bay Olympic's defence.

Twenty minutes in, another well-placed ball through from the central midfield was received off a perfect run by Jacqui David on the left midfield, and converted to goal number four. Then after a great sequence between Ashley Raynes, Shelley Banham and Rachel Glover up the right-hand side, Gemma Gouwland gained possession and sealed the final goal of the game, with a carefully placed shot off a one-on-one with Bay Olympic's keeper.

Toward the end, Amanda Smith of the central defence shifted further up the field to add new vigour to the team's attack force, while Josie Plant, Sally Berridge and goalkeeper Vicki-Lee Watson continued to hold together the backline. Unfortunately the team was unable to capitalise on this new combination and the score remained 5-0 at the full time whistle. Gemma Gouwland was named player of the day for her tireless runs up front and her first goal of 2009. Judging by this performance, Waiuku Women's 1sts are looking like a formidable force in Division Two this year.