Lady Comets ‘cruize’ for Ruiz – Bec Sherry was hard to beat in her new found position along the wing. 51919

By Gavin Staindl
AS the Casey Comets sat in a circle, cooling down from their remarkable 2-1 win over Ashburton, Lorna Gover made the bleeding obvious but nonetheless accurate statement, “why can’t we play like that every week?”
This question is exactly what has plagued coach Debbie Nichols over the last 15 rounds in the Women’s Premier League.
“If they could have played like they did Sunday for the vast majority of the season we would be easily placed to play finals,” Nichols said.
Nichols, who last week was so infuriated with her players that she threatened to walk out on the club, was left exhausted from emotion after the referee finally blew full time.
“The last minute and a half I was so stressed thinking they (Ashburton) would score … afterwards, I didn’t know whether to strangle the players or congratulate them.
“They showed character and commitment and it is just a much better feeling from last week, that is for sure,” she said.
Spearheading last Sunday’s match was Linda Ruiz, who after nearly losing her life earlier this year in a high speed boat collision, returned to the club for the first time and made an emotive pre-game appeal for the players to seize the opportunity to play for the guernsey.
Because of the extensive injuries to her ribs, liver and kidneys, Ruiz may never be able to play soccer again but her speech hit home with the girls.
When Alex Gummer scored Casey’s first goal in the 54th minute from a 30-metre strike that slipped through the hands of the Ashburton goalie, Gummer raced over to Ruiz and hugged her.
“After doing an airplane celebration, she ran over to Linda and hugged her and we were all shouting at her watch the ribs, watch the ribs,” Nichols said.
As is often the case after a Comet goal, the girls allowed their opposition to score only moments later.
Locked at 1-1 deep into injury time, Nicola Prins had the best chance to put Casey into the lead but she failed to connect and her shot went well wide of the goal.
“I thought that was it. That had been our best chance and we really weren’t getting much ball into the box,” Nichols said.
But much to the surprise of the coach, veteran Jen Black bobbed up in the 93rd minute to head home the winner from a Nat Grubic cross.
“It was perfectly scripted,” Nichols said. “She has not scored a goal all season and because of her neck problems she doesn’t header the ball much but she did this time. “It was like it was in slow-motion but I told the girls afterwards that it’s for these few moments that you play the game … it is for this kind of feeling that you play football,” she said.