The Young Football Ferns, who won Monday’s opener 2-1 with Wednesday’s second match drawn 0-0, fell behind to a fired up Australian outfit midway through the first half when a shot from Amy Harrison thundered off the crossbar and into the path of Meg McLaughlin who finished from close range.
It took until the 64th minute for New Zealand to restore parity with substitute Emma Fletcher setting up Emma Rolston to equalise with a low shot across the face of Australian goalkeeper Shamira Khamis after turning a covering defender.
Briar Palmer was a touch fortuitous with New Zealand’s second goal nine minutes later as her cross sailed over Khamis and snuck in at the back post although the winger earned the luck with a hustling run into the box.
With ten minutes remaining, and the Kiwis well and truly hitting their straps, substitute Jolene Muir added the final gloss on the victory by scoring with her first touch – a lob into a vacant net after Khamis and Rolston clashed on the edge of the area.
New Zealand coach Paul Temple was pleased with the second half turnaround.
“We’re delighted because over the three games we thought we had done enough to win the matches and played the better football,” Temple said.
“We lost ourselves in the first half – we were too individualistic. So we got back to passing and playing good football after halftime. We trusted in ourselves and got a good performance.”
Both teams are aiming to qualify for next year’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan. New Zealand’s Oceania qualifiers are not until April while Australia’s Asian qualifiers begin next month.
“Australia are about to peak. They are about to head to China for their World Cup qualifiers for Azerbaijan, so we won’t really know how big a scalp this is until we see how they do in their qualifiers.
“We won’t get carried away but it’s Australia, the old foe, and we don’t win many games against them let alone a series so it’s a good start for us with plenty of positives.
“There were three good performances and most importantly we have been tested in different ways in each of the games.”
U-17 Women’s International
New Zealand: 3 (Emma ROLSTON 64’, Briar PALMER 73’, Jolene MUIR 80’)
Australia: 1 (Meg MCLAUGHLIN 22’)
Halftime: 0-1
North Harbour Stadium Football Turf
Auckland
Referee: Steven BLACK
New Zealand: 1-Lily ALFELD (gk), 3-Laura MERRIN, 4-CJ BOTT, 5-Megan LEE, 6-Hannah CARLSEN, 7-Jasmine PEREIRA (13-Jolene MUIR 80’), 8-Jessica INNES, 9-Martine PUKETAPU (10-Emma FLETCHER 46’), 11-Briar PALMER, 15-Emily JENSEN (c), 18-Emma ROLSTON.
Substitutes not used: 2-Meikayla MOORE, 12-Daisy CLEVERLEY, 14-Tessa LEONG, 16-Ronisa LIPI (rgk), 17-Lauren DABNER.
Coach: Paul TEMPLE
Cautions: None
Australia: 1-Shamira KHAMIS (gk), 2-Olivia PRICE, 3-Elizabeth RALSTON, 9-Amy HARRISON (23-Grace MACINTYRE 84’), 14-Sarah CARROLL (28-Allison CLARKE 46’), 15-Emma CHECKER (12-Hayley SHEHAN 84’), 16-Ebony PHILCOX (10-Jessica DILLON 67’), 17-Alisha BASS, 22-Alexandra NATOLI (11-Grace HENRY 46’), 26-Meg MCLAUGHLIN (5-Melissa CACERES 72’), 30-Lucy METCALF (13-Isabel COOTES 46’).
Substitutes not used: 7-Breanna SAMPSON, 18-Eliza CAMPBELL (rgk), 20-Jessie WILLIAMS, 24-Natalie TOBIN, 25-Penelope EDMONDS (rgk).
Coach: Vicki LINTON
Cautions: None
Series results
Match 1: New Zealand 2 Australia 1
Match 2: New Zealand 0 Australia 0
Match 3: New Zealand 3 Australia 1
New Zealand wins series 2-0
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football.
For more on New Zealand football go to www.nzfootball.co.nz

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