Jemma Robertson just can't stop scoring. A hat-trick against Western Suburbs on Saturday took her total goals to 14 in
all competitions this season and 9 in her last 5 games!
Last season when these two teams met in the corresponding fixture it was an easy 12-0 rout for the W-League Champions,
Diamonds. Since then Western Suburbs have a new coach in the form of Tory Schiltgen, who is also the technical director
of women's football at Ole academy. They also picked up a few players after the demise of the Upper Hutt City W-League
team, have bought in a couple of American imports and also had ex Diamond, NZ U17 international, Maya Hahn, who was
playing her last game for them before heading of to the USA for a scholarship.
Western Suburbs played a high pressing game, which upset United's rhythm and usual patience on the ball. Coach Guillermo
Schiltenwolf saying he wasn't very happy with the first half performance. The downside to Suburbs game was that it
involved the keeper playing in a sweeper like role and quite often being well off her line. It was on one of these
occasions that Jemma Robertson saw this and sent a high lob over Wests keeper, Bex Williams, to make it 1-0. Western
Suburbs evened up the score in the 18th minute when a break down the right flank saw a perfectly weighted cross on to
the edge of the area and American import Melissa Dones managed to head it past United's Roni Lipi.
The second flaw with Wests high pressing game was that it was quite intense and towards the end of the first half the
players started to drop off the pace a bit and Wellington United took advantage of this. Dani Ohlsson who had been
making several inroads down the left flank only to see her shots well saved by Williams in the Suburbs goal, again got a
chance but seeing that her angle to goal was cut off she squared the ball across the goal where Jemma Robertson met it
and slotted it into the back of the net.
Almost straight away from the kick off, Diamonds had another attack and a clumsy challenge resulted in a penalty for
them, Captain Sarah Alder stepped up but her shot was well saved by Bex Williams pushing the ball over the bar. It was
just a couple of minutes later that Diamonds did extend their lead when after another save the ball came out to Emma
Main on the edge of the penalty area and she lobbed it back in to the top of the goal.
Wellington United took control of the game in the second half and set up camp in the Western Suburbs half. It was some
great work from the other Robertson sister, Mickey, chasing down and winning the ball off a defender and getting the
ball across the six yard area where it found Jemma for her to complete her hat-trick and give United a 4-1 win, that
keeps them in 2nd place in the league, just 3 points behind leaders Wairarapa United