Rob McKie remembers the last words he said to Ashleigh Connor. ”Ash, be careful driving home,” the Illawarra Stingrays club president said.

Hours later, a close-knit football team was struggling to come to terms with the loss of one of its star strikers, a gifted young woman regarded by many as family.

The body of Connor, 21, was found in the wreckage of her car on Appin Road, Cataract, yesterday morning.

”She grinned at me and said ‘Rob, I’m not on my motorbike, I’m in the car’ before heading off,” Mr McKie said.

The notorious road has a 100km/h speed limit between Bulli Tops and Appin. It has a number of sweeping bends and falls away sharply at the edge.

Mr McKie described Connor as a ”target player with a lethal shot”. He also spoke of her bubbly personality.

”She had a cheekiness about her. She got her fair share of yellow cards,” he said. ”But we knew what we were getting with Ash, and we loved every minute of it.”

The Matildas captain, Melissa Barbieri, paid tribute to Connor on her Facebook page. ”Women’s football has lost a bright star, RIP Ash Connor … Heaven must have needed a striker. Gone too soon.”

FIFA and Hyundai announced today that Caitlin Foord of Australia is the first recipient at a FIFA Women’s World Cup™ of the Hyundai Best Young Player award, an established and coveted award at the FIFA World Cup™. Caitlin Foord was judged by FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) to have demonstrated not only skill and creativity but also to have competed in accordance with the principles of fair play. Continue Reading

The Westfield Matildas took their first step towards the next stage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup today in Bochum with a hard fought 3-2 win over Equatorial Guinea. Continue Reading

Lauren Colthorpe scored in her 50^th international match and Sally Shipard and Kyah Simon chipped in with one each as the Westfield Matildas came from behind to beat Mexico 3-2 in Gottingen today.

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