By Gary Caffell
Super sub Emily Morison has done it again.
The goal scored six minutes into extra time by the 17-year-old when she came off the bench for Capital against Waikato-Bay of Plenty in their national women’s league semi-final match at Petone Memorial Park on Sunday levelled the scores at 2-2 and eventually paved the way for a penalty shootout which Capital won 4-2.
A couple of weeks previous she had done pretty much the same thing, only on that occasion her late goal gave Capital a 3-2 win over Northern and guaranteed them a semi-final berth in the process.
Morison’s latest effort came after WaiBop looked to be in the box seat after Capital goalkeeper Anna Wittman-Wenzel was sent off when she brought down an opposition player outside the box.
The resulting free kick was rifled into the bottom left corner of the net by Waibop’s Chelsea Elliott to give them a crucial 2-1 advantage.
Six minutes of extra time had been played when Morison, who has just completed her schooling at Kuranui College, weaved her magic.
She found herself with only Waibop keeper Amanda Wilshier to beat when she picked up a through ball and she rounded Wilshier in expert style before slotting the ball into a then open goal.
“It was a great ball, it was just a case of me making the most of it,” Morison recalled yesterday.
“I can’t say I remember much, it all happened so fast.
“It was good to watch the video later and see how things worked out.”.
Interestingly Capital co-coach Sam Morrisey can’t remember the Morison goal either, saying the match had been such an exciting roller-coaster of emotions he wouldn’t recall how the equaliser had gone in.
This is Morison’s third year in the Capital side and while she has was a regular starter last season she is not the least concerned about making most of her appearances off the bench this time round.
“We have a very strong side and that means there is a lot of competition for starting places.
“My job has been to come on for the last 20 minutes or so and try to add something extra to the attack, and hopefully I’ve managed to do that.”
Sunday’s match against Canterbury Pride in Christchurch will represent Capital’s first appearance in a national women’s final since 2009 and Morison says they will be paying little attention to the last time the two teams met when Mainland scored a 3-1 win.
“We’ve looked back on that game and realised that we were too worried about what they might do, rather than focusing on our own strengths,” Morison said.
“It will be entirely different on Sunday, we are going to be a lot more positive and rely on our own skills to get us the right result.
“We’re determined to give it our best shot and I’m confident we will.”
