A late goal to Michelle Heyman has seen Canberra United scrape past a defiant Melbourne Victory 1-0 in their Westfield W-League semi final at Mackellar Park on Saturday afternoon.
A late goal to Michelle Heyman has seen Canberra United scrape past a defiant Melbourne Victory 1-0 in their Westfield W-League semi final at Mackellar Park on Saturday afternoon.
The fourth-placed Victory defied their ladder position and took it to the undefeated United early and could have been one or two up after a stellar first 25 minutes.
But they were made to rue a couple of costly misses from captain Jodie Taylor as Canberra gradually gained ascendancy in a dominant second half.
Melbourne bravely held out attack after attack until the 83rd minute, when Canberra-s star striker Heyman finally broke through.
She took the ball from outside the box and in the bumping duel, broke free and struck home a powerful left-foot shot which took a deflection off Rebekah Stott-s back and into the left hand corner.
It was an unlucky end for Melbourne, who started in a flurry.
Taylor had Canberra goalkeeper Lydia Williams diving at full flight to her right in the ninth minute, before Katrina Gorby-s shot forced Williams to parry it out.
Taylor then had a couple of moments she-d like to forget, skying a bouncing ball over the cross bar in the 15th minute before shooting across the face with only Williams to beat two minutes later.
In the 25th minute Heyman nearly broke through, nutmegging Danielle Johnson and shooting strongly but Maika Ruyter-Hooley managed to come through in the nick of time and deflect it out.
Canberra finished the half well, Shiphard won the ball in her own half and put the ball in front of Heyman, who beat an oncoming Davey to the ball, although she wasn-t able to cut it into an open goal from a tight angle.
With seven minutes left in the half, Taylor missed another sitter. Ashley Brown had produced a sweet through ball which had Taylor one-on-one with Williams, but she again put the ball across the face of goal.
Right on the stroke of half-time Jennifer Bisset put a dangerous long ball in which Hayley Raso got to but her shot grazed the post.
Canberra started to dominate possession in the second half, but with numerous near-misses they weren-t able convert their chances into that much-needed goal.
In the 48th minute Shiphard crossed from wide on the left and Heyman rose above three defenders to head in, but it was called back for offside.
In the 58th minute Grace Gill took a free kick from the edge of the 18-yard box and found a flying Raso who headed over the crossbar.
Then Raso took the ball on the counter attack and found Sykes, who put a nice chip over to Heyman, whose shot took a deflection and was saved.
With 15 minutes left Hemmings cut the ball in along the turf to Heyman who wasted her chance by hitting the ball a metre too high.
But Heyman soon broke the deadlock for a deserved goal, her 13th of the year, as Canberra earned themselves their first-ever home Grand Final.
Canberra United 1 (Heyman 83)
Melbourne Victory 0
Crowd: 1785
