Royals just miss out on final

SOCKS and sandals do not go together.

Nor do football and penalty shootouts, if you ask the Dunedin City Royals.

The Dunedin club was a couple of tremendous saves away from a place in the Kate Sheppard Cup final.

Northern Rovers will take the spot instead, following a pulsating semifinal in Auckland on Saturday.

The game was tied 11 at fulltime and 22 after extra time.

The Royals fell behind twice but rallied.

Leanna Ryan scored in the 13th minute for Northern and the home team took that advantage into the break.

But Shontelle Smith curled the ball in from a corner to equalise 10 minutes into the second half.

Replacement Kate McConnell nodded in during the first half of extra time, but the Royals came back once more.

Hannah MackayWright got on the end of a pinpoint free kick from Smith and headed it into the back of the net.

The second spell of extra time was endtoend but neither side could find a winner.

So, it went to a penalty shootout which Rovers won 53.

To slog it out for two hours only to lose like that was the worst feeling.

Dunedin City coach Graeme Smaill felt his team had done enough to win the game.

‘‘It took us a wee while to get settled at the start.

‘‘We dominated them in the second half and created a lot of chances, but the goalkeeper pulled off a couple of saves otherwise we might have been out of sight.

‘‘We are super proud of the girls; there were a lot of great performances.’’

Smith and MackayWright were outstanding, as were Toni Power and Rose Morton.

‘‘They were standouts but there were a bunch of standouts, really.’’

Northern has now gone 23 games without losing which helps put the effort of the Royals into perspective.

In the other Kate Sheppard semifinal, Auckland United beat Palmerston North Marist 52 in Auckland.

Martine Puketapu banged in four goals to set up the win.