Chatham Cup Won By Northern (Dunedin)

Press, Volume C, Issue 29603, 28 August 1961, Page 14

Chatham Cup Won By Northern (Dunedin)

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 27. In an exhilarating exhibition of soccer, Northern (Dunedin) beat the highly-fancied Auckland team, North Shore, 2-0, in the 1961 Chatham Cup final played at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, on Saturday. The 7000 spectators will long remember a match that was as exciting, and certainly as skilful, as any seen in Wellington.

It was soccer as it should be played. The ball was always moving to players intelligently pre-positioned to take it forward, and every minute of the match had a fluidity and mobility that kept the crowd surging and roaring its appreciation of a great exhibition. The teams were:— North Shore: A. Windsor; J. Collins, G. Hankins; K. Armstrong, W. Ward, D. Easto (captain); J. Ryan, T. Patterton, A. Middleton, L. Polyansky, P. Oden. Northern: J. Stephenson; A. Young, T. McFarlane; J. Rae, J. Ferguson (captain). S. Forbes; G. Berry, B Campbell, G. Little, D. McVey, P. Little. Northern Dominant Only in the first five minutes did North Shore look like the team that trounced Technical Old Boys in last year’s final. After that, it was all Northern. Northern’s captain and centre half, Ferguson, was the rock on which North Shore foundered. Time and again he turned North Shore back. Repeatedly, he and his wing halves, Rae and Forbes, fed the wings, Berry and Little, whose long, weaving runs up the side-line were translated into precision centring kicks that gave the tireless inside men, Little, at centre, and Campbell and McVey, at insides, a feast of ball. From this persistent attack, North Shore's agile goal-keeper, Windsor, and its full-backs, Collins and Hankins, emerged with honour. Windsor thwarted Northern's forwards with miracle saves. Even when Windsor sprawled helpless on the ground as a shot went goalwards, Collins appeared from nowhere to kick the ball right off the chalk of the goal-line. In any other match but this, it would have been a goal. Early Attack North Shore kicked off into the wind, and early superiority in midfield paid off with

two comers in two minutes. Then Polyansky made a dazzling run, leaving three opponents in his wake, but Stephenson survived the bombardment. Northern settled down and, as a light shower fell, moved into attack. Windsor survived the baptism of fire, and play swung to the other end. After 15 minutes Polyansky missed an easy chance when Ryan, who played well all day, pushed the ball across to him. After 34 minutes, the Northern centre-forward. Little, gained a loose ball, jockeyed himself into position, passed to Berry, whose shot from the wing hurtled past Windsor's dive. Just before half-time there was a hint of panic in North Shore's play, when precision and pattern gave way to desperate bustle, and even wtih the wind at its back in the second half, North Shore never recovered the poise it had lost. Not Finding Forwards Though North Shore’s energy never flagged, the halves were not finding the forwards. Armstrong, only a shadow of the man who played for Chelsea and England, tried unavailingly to give cohesion to his team, but with 11 minutes left was hurt in a tackle and had to leave the field. Then Northern’s clever wing, Little, went off. Both players came back, though hardly fit to continue, and the battle raged on. North Shore now threw everything into storming raids, but it was Northern who sealed the match with two minutes to go. Little was fast to a rolling ball. He sprinted up the left wing, where Ward raced across to head him off. Then Little executed a pretty pas de deux with Ward until his own forwards could position themselves for a centre. The ball was sent to McVey, who, when threatened, pushed it on to Campbell. Windsor sprang valiantly, but Campbell’s hard drive was a goal.