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Written by Admin
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At Ashburton Park, Box Hill
and Ashburton played out yet another pulsating draw – the home side securing a
share of the points with only 2 minutes of normal time remaining when Seyma Erenli
notched her twelfth goal of
the season. Amanda
Lawless had put Inter in front early in the opening stanza but the home side’s
sustained pressure with the second-half wind at its back earned it a deserved
late equaliser. Box Hill remains in second, two points ahead of Ashburton in
thirdTuesday 3 July 2007.
Ashburton's
Seyma Erenli's dramatic 88th-minute
equaliser ensured her side snatched a share
of the spoils against Box Hill for the
second time this season Ashburton having
also managed a late goal when the sides met
at Wembley Park earlier this year. With a
gusty wind favouring the High Street end
at its back, Box Hill made the most of its
first-half advantage to go 1-0 up after just
15 minutes. A determined Georgia
Koutrouvelis dispossessed the Ashburton
defence before knocking the ball through for
Amanda Lawless who fired low and hard past
the diving Antoinette Santacaterina. Soon
after, Krystal McCluskey flicked a long ball
on for Lawless, who could not bring the
bouncing ball down quickly enough and
sprayed her shot narrowly over the bar.
Ashburton, unable to find penetration into
the stiff breeze, relied on the pace and
guile of its forward pairing of Erenli and
Annabelle Gibney as it sought a way back
into the match.
But, while the dangerous attacking duo broke
free at times during the opening stanza, the
Inter defence appeared to have them covered.
The second half was an altogether different
affair as Ashburton, now kicking with the
wind, stationed Gulcan Koca wide on the
right, to support the strikers, and pinned
the Inter defence into its own half for
extended periods. But, on the
counter-attack, Box Hill twice squandered
opportunities to double its advantage inside
the opening 20 minutes of the half. On the
hour, Genia Avram blazed over the bar after
connecting with Lawless's sweetly-timed
corner. And, moments later, Santacaterina
made a brilliant reflex save off Avram, who
had raced onto Kat Smith's
perfectly-weighted cross-field ball and was
bearing down on goal. But, the momentum was
with the home side as Tina Grkinjic shaved
the wrong side of the post with a well-timed
strike from outside the penalty area on 75
minutes. Erenli should have scored, when
played through on goal, but her shot was
blunted by the diving Helen Klerides, who
followed up her save with a desperate second
effort to kill the loose ball. But Erenli
made no mistake two minutes from time when,
after her initial header bounced back off
the crossbar, she was first to the rebound,
threading a shot through two defenders and
Klerides' grasp to level the scores
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