Women's
Ashleigh Ward in NZ U-17 women's squad for World Cup qualifiers
23 March 2010
Coastal Spirit women's first team forward, Ashleigh Ward, has been named in the 20-player New Zealand U-17 Women's World Cup Qualifiers squad. New Zealand will play Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Tonga at North Harbour Stadium, 12-16 April 2010 in the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) U-17 Women's Championships - with the winner gaining a place in the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Trinidad & Tobago in September.
New Zealand squad | OFC U-17 Women's Championship | 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
Coastal Spirit win 2010 Kaiapoi Women's Pre-Season Tournament
21 March 2010
Coastal Spirit women's division 2 team beat Waimakariri United 4-1 on pens (2-2 after extra time, with Adelma Matthews and Alice Bunce scoring the goals) in the final of the Kaiapoi pre-season tournament.
2010 Pre-Season training
Senior Women's (WPL and Reserves) Preseason Training
Official preseason training commenced Monday 25th January 2010, 6.30pm start at Bexley Reserve. Training days will be Monday & Thursday with one Sunday morning (31st Jan).
Senior Women's preseason tournament commences 1st March.
The WPL competition starts 3rd April, with the women's reserve competition starting 10th April.
For enquiries, please contact Gareth Turnbull at gareth@linfield.co.nz or on 0277499283
2009 National Women's League
Hannah Wong scored 5 goals for NZ U-17 women in the 2009 National Women's League (NZ U-17 were in the finished 5th nationally. Meanwhile, Ashleigh Ward and Laura Merrin appeared for Mainland Pride as they reached the semi-finals of the League. Victoria Esson (Coastal Spirit 2008) was goalkeeper in the Auckland side that won the National Women's League.
Coastal Spirit - U-19 Girls South Island Champions
26 October 2009
Coastal Spirit are the inaugural Tsunami U-19 Girls South Island Champions. After a busy, enjoyable weekend of football at Bexley, a 6-0 thumping of Waimak in the Final capped an unbeaten tournament for our A team - although there was almost a scare in the quarter-finals when a penalty shoot-out was needed to separate Coastal Spirit A and Coastal Spirit B (who finished 6th). Monique Barker (Coastal Spirit A) was named Girls Tournament MVP. Results
Spirit players named in Mainland Pride squad
5 Coastal Spirit players have been named in the 2009 Mainland Pride squad to play in the National Women's League - Ashleigh Ward, Hannah Wong, Laura Merrin, Hayley McKnight and Chloe Jones. The pride start the season in Christchurch at home to FootballSouth at 1pm, 26 October 2009.
Full squad | Fixtures
Ashleigh Ward - Mainland Women's Youth Player of the Year
Ashleigh Ward has been awarded Mainland Football's Women's Youth Player of the Year for 2009. See the list of Mainland award winners (pdf 20 kB)
CSFC win 2009 Reta Fitzpatrick Cup
Coastal Spirit have won the 2009 Reta Fitzpatrick Cup. A 2-1 win over Western in the Final means that the Cup stays with Coastal Spirit.
Gareth Turnbull reports, "The Reta is a competition so dear to many of
the girls and supporters of the team. I was fortunate enough
to call upon Heather Hepburn to be manager for the day and
deliver a rousing speech pre-match about Reta and how much
this competition means to us... I would give our [Player of the Day] award to
both fullbacks (Alice Foote and Alex Hepburn) for very solid displays..."
Read the rest of the report | Photos
2009 Women's Premier League CSFC 4 Avon 2
Gareth Turnbull, Women's First Team Coach reports, "the catch phrase today for us was to be 'our standards'. Walking in at halftime with the score at 1-1, I posed some simple questions to the girls. 'Are you happy with your performance' and 'are you happy with the team's performance'... Player of the Day: getting through a power of thankless work Marcella [pictured] deserves the award..."
Read the rest of the report
CSFC 2 Auckland Magpies 1, Friday 03 July 2009, 7pm, Eric Adam Park
The Auckland Magpies toured New Zealand tour as their Australia tour had to be cancelled. The reason for this cancellation was that Magpies' coach Debbie Lamb (ex New Zealand player), is a very sick lady (lung cancer) and cannot travel outside of New Zealand.
Debbie travelled with the squad to Christchurch, and it was a great opportunity to not only see some great girl's football but also for local players to meet up with Deb again. Debbie Lamb (nee Debbie Kok/Pullen) first played for New Zealand in 1979 and continued to play at this level through the early 1980s and 90s (40 caps). She is a class striker and superb technician on the ball/natural leftie.
The Magpies are a mix of age grade United 1 Rep players and the Coastal side (the Kanga Cup squad) are a similar mix of age-grade Mainland/Federation players.
Chloe Jones provides the match report:
Christchurch turned on a typical winter night to welcome the Auckland Magpies. Although the wet weather earlier in the week meant that the ground conditions were wet and slippery, there was an enthusiastic, supportive crowd gathered ready to watch both teams battle it out.
At kick off, we were fired up and ready to put the Magpies in their place and put on a good show for the spectators. Right from the whistle we were straight on the attack with a ball through the middle to Ashleigh Ward resulting in a shot on goal and an attacking corner. This set the tone for the rest of the half with the Magpies being on the back foot and never threatening our goal, in fact Lily Alfield (keeper) never touched the ball in the first half. The girls really worked hard on playing our style of game which resulted in us keeping possession and controlling the game. After we dominated the first 15 minutes we were rewarded when a quick one-two was played, putting Ashleigh through behind their defence and a calm finish from her put us 1-0 up.
We continued to dominate the rest of the first half but weren't able to add to the earlier goal despite some good opportunities with the score remaining 1-0 at half time. We were all thoroughly enjoying the game and there were a lot of smiles on faces in the sheds at half time.
We came out after half time ready to finish off the game, the Magpies also came out pumped and fired up so we knew we were in for a big fight back from them. It was a much more even game after the break but after the first 15 minutes we came out on top with Laura Merrin putting the ball over their keeper and into the top right hand corner of the goal. We were now 2-0 up but they definitely weren't going down without a fight. Our team was put under a fair bit of pressure in defence. At that point we needed to get the ball back on the ground and calm the game down again. Some strong and determined tackles from Coastal's centre mids relieved a fair bit of pressure in the middle of the park.
The game got close towards the end and the Auckland girls really wanted to take something away from this game. They continued to fight hard with the Magpies stringing some good passes together to create an opportunity for their centre mid to get on the ball. As she ran through on goal, Sarah Terris (keeper) slipped and fell in the slippery goal mouth and with our defence beaten she chipped it over Sarah to make the final score 2-1.
It was a great game with both teams playing some great football and fighting for every ball. The first half was definitely our better half but overall it was a good performance and a good win for our girls over a previously unbeaten team. A special thanks to Debbie and the Auckland Magpies for coming down to Christchurch and making the game a great contest. We wish you all the best.
Our team will now focus on the upcoming Kanga Cup tournament in Australia which we are leaving for on Sunday.
The team: Lily Alfield, Tegan MacDonald, Chloe Jones, Samantha Williams, Isla Smith, Jemma Dockerty, Chloe Webster, Serena Patel, Ashleigh Ward, Laura Merrin, Mollie Cairns. Subs: Sarah Terris, Sorren Henderson, Christy Barker.
Cup Action
Coastal Spirit have been beaten 1-2 by Halswell United in the Preliminary Round of the 2009 NZ Women's Knock-out Cup.
NZ Women's Knock-Out Cup Draw | CSFC in NZ Women's Knock-out Cup
Coastal Spirit began the defence of the Reta Fitzpatrick Cup (pictured) with a 5-1 win in the Quarter-Final match against Waimakariri United and will play, then defeated Halswell 5-0 in the semi-final and will beat Western 2-1 in the Final.
2009 Pre-Season Tournament Final: Spirit 0 Western 0 aet (4-5 pens)
Coastal Spirit won the Group Stage of the 2009 Pre-Season Tournament for women's first teams. Coastal Spirit beat Halswell (4-1), Ferrymead Bays(7-3) and Western (1-0). In the semi-finals, on Wednesday 11 March, Coastal Spirit beat Halswell United 2-0, with Western defeating Ferrymead Bays.
Full results of the Coastal Spirit Pre-Season Tournament.
Coaching Resources
Coastal Spirit FC offers our coaches a wide range of coaching resources. Reach our on-line coaching resources through the following link:
Coastal Spirit FC Coaching
[log-in required, if you are a current Coastal Spirit FC coach and require log-in permission, then please contact Gareth Turnbull for log-in details]
Reta Fitzpatrick Cup Final: Coastal Spirit 7 Avon 0
Rowena Fulham reports on completing the double: "The final performance of the season matched the brilliant weather and clear blue skies of a perfect Christchurch day. With the thought of Reta looking over us and a promise I'd made her at her funeral, the plan was to bring that Little Blue Cup home. The past 3 weeks has seen the guys play some great football and wrap up the WPL and in an outstanding display of skill, and composed football we added the Reta to deservedly give us the double for 2008... the Reta Fitzpatrick Cup, who we played for and who did so much for women's football with Rangers and Canterbury. To have Ric in attendance and present the trophy was also very special [photo by Chris Andrews: Stef White accepting Reta Fitzpatrick Cup from Ric Fitzpatrick]... "
Read the rest of the women's first team review | More Finals day photos from Chris Andrews
Coastal Spirit Women's League Champions
Coastal Spirit secured the 2008 Mainland Women's Premier Football League title with a 4-0 win at Ferrymead Bays. Spirit scored three first-half goals, with Megan Shea providing a deft finish, Stef White heading in from a corner, and Maia Vink scoring direct from a long-distance free-kick. Kirsty Palmer added the fourth in the second-half. Spirit won the title by 5 points from Western, who drew 2-2 with Avon.
FB v CSFC match report
Esson and Shea - Coastal Spirit's first World Cup Finals reps
Coastal Spirit's Megan Shea and Victoria Esson (both pictured) played for New Zealand v Canada in a 1-0 loss on 28 October 2008 in the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2008. Rowena Fulham is the Assistant Coach. Victoria Esson (goalkeeper) started and made several world-class saves. Megan Shea appeared as a 77th minute substitute and contributed as NZ strived to get what would have been a deserved equaliser.
NZ Football report | FIFA report | Sportswebsoccer report
On 1 November, despite still having a game to play, New Zealand were eliminated after a 1-2 loss to Denmark. Victoria Esson played the full match and Megan Shea was an unused substitute.
NZ Football report | FIFA report | Sportswebsoccer report
On 4 November, New Zealand beat Colombia 3-1 in Wellington to finish 3rd in Group A. Victoria Esson played the full match and Megan Shea was an unused substitute.
NZ Football report | FIFA report | Sportswebsoccer report
Coastal Spirit supported FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
New Zealand hosted the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2008 in October and November 2008. CSFC had players and coaching staff represented in the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
For more information on the Tournament see our feature on the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup and 2008 NZ U-17 women
Victoria Esson was also selected in the New Zealand U-20 squad for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup 2008 in Chile.