Old Girls' game plan pays off at last

Old Girls put paid to their reputation for underachieving in the Northland Premier Hockey competition in recent years, when they overcame a talented Maungakaramea side 4-1 to become 2009 champions.
Their captain Tarannah Vette said her team were obviously elated at going on to win the title in such style after reaching their first premier final in five years.
"We've had an awesome season but we were quite nervous about the playoffs but today it went exactly as we had hoped and we stuck exactly to the game plan we wanted to today, and it paid off for us, we're really rapt," she said.
Old Girls have fielded some very good sides over the  past few years but have been unable to continue their round robin form into the playoffs and developed a knack for being beaten when the competition reaching the knock-out stages.
Not this year.
They may have struggled to overcome Hikurangi last week but on Saturday they overpowered Maungakaramea, who have been improving gradually throughout the season.
Old Girls had to get over an early setback with midfielder Jess Mcallister  forced out of the match with a suspected broken wrist after an untidy fall. Both teams felt the pressure early on with mistakes and poor passing dominating the game.
In the 22nd minute, Old Girls were rewarded for some clever passing on attack with their second penalty corner.
Laura Douglas stepped up and drilled the ball home - with the goal setting the game alight.
Maungakaramea immediately pushed forward and looked to have scored one of the best goals of the season, starting with a crisp set of passes starting off with Nat Child and including first time passes from Tania Crene and Rhonda Rowsell.
The clinical move was finished off by Nicole Wilkins but umpires saw the ball touched the striker's foot before she pushed it home and the goal was disallowed.
Immediately afterward, Douglas again proved her value to her side by intercepting a ball in midfield and quickly dispatching the ball into the circle for Melissa Simpson, who provided a classy finish to make it 2-0.
Old Girls had the game in their grasp at the break but were still wary of the quality of their opposition, and an emphasis on defence dominated the halftime team talk.
They had the best of the chances at the beginning of the spell and Vette made it 3-0 after being in the right place during a goal mouth melee.
Douglas closed out the game with her second in the 45th minute after again dispossessing a defender before calmly backhanding the shot past Tracey Martin in the Maungakaramea goal.
Jonelle Culling scored a deserved consolation goal for Maungakaramea five minutes later but although they continued to try and close the gap, Old Girls were happy enough to run the clock down and enjoy their long overdue victory.
Vette paid homage to their coach Alan Lints, who is overseas and missed the final.
"He kept us so tight this season and that was what we needed out there today."
"We were a really disciplined side this season, we trained really hard and everyone in the team was completely dedicated to the team," Vette said.