WOMEN'S SOCCER: Rovers coach and stars get the perfect send-off

ANENDRA SINGH
The trouble with TV weather girls and boys is that they are right too often for us to ignore them and wrong too often for us to rely on them.
When Napier City Rovers women's coach, Rossi Gannon, was drawing up his team list for the Knockout Cup final at Petane Domain, Eskview, at 12.30pm on Saturday the weather forecast was high up on the agenda, considering he only had one reserve player with experienced midfielder Vicki Marlow bracketed in.
Come kick-off time, rain would have meant Marlow, who was part of the Hastings 50th Birthday Celebration team at the Bridge Pa aerodrome, could have come out to play. While Toni Marsh and Brendan Horan's TV outlook made that clear, the time was hazy.
It didn't rain until soon after fulltime at 2.15pm so Marlow was out of the equation but Gannon need not have worried, as Rovers overwhelmed hosts Eskview Blue 4-1 to lift the trophy.
It was a good send-off for Gannon, left wing Sharne Schmidt and centreback Leticia Cleary.
"I've been committed to women's football for seven years and today I was proud of my players. It was an awesome spectacle and the women who turned up to watch it appreciated that women's football has come a long way," Gannon, with two medals around his neck, told SportToday.
The Rovers have finished their season by finishing as top qualifier in the round-robin section to determine the two divisions and the league championship crown before earning Saturday's Knockout Cup bragging rights.
Gannon stepped down as coach while Saturday's captain, Schmidt, and Cleary are off to university next year.
Playing in the alternative red strip, Schmidt found the net in the 14th minute after a well-timed cross from the right flank from centre-mid Rhiannon Jones for a 1-nil lead into halftime.
Despite their experience Eskview seemed overawed by the occasion with strikers Carissa Lissington and Rose Brownlie hesitating when the few opportunities arose to attack.
A classic example was in the 19th minute when, despite calls from centre-mid Jarn McCleland to leftback Effie Milne not to throw the ball back to right half Ann-Marie "Spike" Lawlor, Milne did. Lawlor tripped, lost possession and Eskview were backpedalling.
Her left knee heavily bandaged, ex-Taradale Fed player Lawlor had an average game and was often found wanting when it came to backing up Lissington and Brownlie on the right flank.
Eskview keeper Jan Bartle, dressed like a golfer in a light pink, printed skivvy and white sun visor, did well to keep striker Claudia Crasborne and Schmidt at bay.
In the 34th minute Brownlie squandered a scoring opportunity when Rovers goalkeeper Aleesha Haywood lay on the edge of the 18m box. She quickly learned that trying to dribble past Meghan Sheppard was a grave mistake.
In the second spell, referee Dorothy Underhill awarded a penalty to Eskview after Cleary brought down replacement striker Saane Cocker in the box. McCleland coolly thumped it past Haywood.
In the 52nd minute, Schmidt latched on to feeble clearances for a 2-1 lead but an undetected Jones was offside when she laid the ball back from the ensuing melee.
Three minutes later Crasborne outpaced two defenders to make it 3-1.
In the 64th minute, Bartle fumbled leftback Felicity Robottom's worm burner from the edge of the 18m box.
Centre-mid Aroha Lynch, the only non-schoolgirl, was pivotal in controlling the structured Napier side and so was her Eskview counterpart, Abby Burrows.
As for McCleland, she'll have to wait for another season to try to secure victory for their inspirational Eskview Blue coach, Viv Moule.