SOCCER City Beaten, Western Gains One-Point Lead

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30201, 5 August 1963, Page 3

SOCCER City Beaten, Western Gains One-Point Lead

Ina game marred by a serious injury to the former English League professional, G. Evans, Western defeated Christchurch City by the odd goal in three at English Park on Saturday and took over leadership of the O’Briens sponsored tournament.

Evans broke his nose in a clash of heads with Western’s former professional player, P. Frost, and was taken to hospital. City was then reduced to 10 men for the second time in the game and was unable to overcome the disadvantage and Western’s strong defence.

With one round to play, Western leads City by one point, and the final games next week will decide the tournament.

Western play Shamrock in the main game at English Park, and City meet Nomads at Macfarlane Park. City has the easier task as Nomads will have their senior team in Dunedin for the South Island final of the Chatham Cup.

Shamrock, scoring five goals in 17 minutes, defeated New Brighton, 6-2. while Nomads, at full strength for the first time, registered its first victory in the tournament by beating Technical 0.8. 3-0. Results were:—

O'BRIEN’S TOURNAMENT Western 2, City L Nomads 3, Technical 0.8. 0. Shamrock 6, New Brighton 3, FIRST DIVISION Riccarton 4, H. 5.0.8. 1. Wanderers 8, Waterside 2.

A spate of injuries that twice reduced City to 10 men and once, for a short time, to nine marred this clash of the two top teams at English Park. First player to go oft was the Citygoalkeeper, R. Lewin, whose place was taken by the rightwing, H. Nelson. Shortly after Lewin returned. City lost its centre-half and coach. G. Evans, with a broken nose, and was cut further in man power when the inside-right, R. Bruce, went off for a couple of minutes. With all its trouble and strife City did extremely well to hold on to a goal deficit, but It had Its effect on the game. Play which in the first half had been full of promise and bad been warming up for a rousing finish steadily deteriorated, and the game petered out to a tame, unsatisfactory finish During the final stages the Western centreforward, M. Clements, had his name taken by the referee Until Evans went off. and for a short while afterwards, the match was evenly balanced, although Western had just managed to edge itself in front with

its second goal soon after the s’art of the second half. City bad done everything but score just before the interval and asain 10 minutes tn the second h At. The first was a fantastic 3C'-second interlude in the Western goalmouth where J. le Poicevin had a shot blocked on the line, W Shannon's struck the underside of the bar. le Poidevin's header was scrambled awav. and Shannon's header missed by Inches. Shannon was again in the thick of the second Incident, his shot going for the goal and J. Young heading over his own bat at the last second

City kept up its pressure, but the impetus died away and Western was not greatly troubled to keep its narrow lead after Evans's departure. Nor, however. was City in any real difficulty. and the match reached a st-ilemate in mid-field. The first half produced the brightest patches, with Evans dictating his team's tactics In opposition to Frost, who adopted a similar role for Western Both teams suffered from the inability of their wings to open up play and keep the defence at full stretch, and play was forced into the middle, where both sets of defenders were strongest. Attacks broke down mainly through a general fail-

ure to back up the man with the ball, and the shooting of all forwards was high, wide and not very handsome. M Clements scored the first goal for Western, a fine shot through the only gap left for him by Lewin, who had expected a centre, and Shannon equalised. T Haydon netted the winning goal. The reteree was Mr I. Billcliff. SHAMROCK v. NEW BRIGHTON Playing sparkling football for 20 minutes. Shamrock overwhelmed New Brighton. 6-2, in the early game at English Park. After the seasiders had taken the lead in the fifth minute, Shamrock got right on top and scored five goals. New Brighton came back to score once more before the end of the first half, but neither side was able to sustain the speed and pressure in the second half.

Shamrock, overawed by the presence of City's centre-half. G. Evans, the previous week, did not make the mistake again of allowing the opposition to dictate terms. Although a defensive slip enabled New Brighton to take the lead. Shamrock’s forwards and halves quickly asserted themselves. Outstanding was the right-half. P Barrett, who played nis best game of the season. Time and again he came through tackles with the ball, and broke up numerous Brighton attacks. Equally effective was H. Taylor, at left-half, and the centre-half. P Flynn, and by this trio Brighton's attack was effectively strangled. D. Sansbury was again the architect and builder of Shamrock's attacking movements, and this time he received the support he deserved. Distributing the ball all over the field he probed at the weakest points in the Brighton defence and left the others to add the final

touches. The wings. J. Rea and W. Yates, revelled in the service Sansbury provided, and the Brighton defence became a disorganised unit long enough for Shamrock to put the match beyond repair. After N. Robinson had shot Brighton into the lead Sansbury and Taylor opened the path to goal for Rea to equalise. P. Barrett clipped in the second goal from 20 yards and J. Barrett ran on to a pass from Taylor to make it 3-1. Badly rattled by these sudden goals, W. Down and J. Baird stood aside while J. Killick increased the lead. Rea notched his second to make the score 5-1, and there was ample sign at this stage that Sham-

O’BRIENS TOURNAMENT p. w. D. 1*. Pts. Western 4 3 1 — 7 City 4 3 — 1 6 Shamrock 4 2 1 5 N. Brighton 4 1 1 2 3 Nomads 4 1 * 3 2 Tech. O.B .. 4 • 1 3 1 FIRST DIVISION p w. D. Pts University .. 12 10 2 * 22Rangers 14 10 — 4 20 HS.O.B. 14 6 2 6 14 Wanderers .. 13 5 3 5 13 Waterside 13 6 * 7 12 Riccarton 14 5 I 8 11 Hornby 13 4 * 9 8 Wigram 11 2 1 8 5 WESTERN v. CITY