Canterbury Soccer Team Has Stern Test Against Otago

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30442, 16 May 1964, Page 11

Canterbury Soccer Team Has Stern Test Against Otago

TF the Canterbury soccer A selector (Mr V. Smith) had deliberately chosen a province on which to use the 4-24 formation for the first time he would probably have picked Otago. So it is not without a certain amount of optimism that the Canterbury team travels to Dunedin on Saturday for the first leg of the Jones Cup.

Canterbury’s soccer record last season was an unhappy one, and its matches with Otago provided the only bright spots. In squelching mud on both occasions, Canterbury won 5-2 in Christchurch and drew 2-2 in Dunedin where all four goals were scored by penalties. This meant that Canterbury won the Jones Cup on the aggregate of goals for the two games and did not end the season completely barren of trophies. But Otago has never been an easy province to beat. Its soccer, in the Scottish tradition, has always been fast and clever, and its players have been in the forefront of the New Zealand game. This season there are ominous signs that Otago is bristling with hurt pride and avowed determination to show the New Zealand selectors how wrong they were to send a national team around the world without an Otago player in the 18man party. The Canterbury matches on Saturday, in both the senior and under 20 grades, will be the first opportunity for Otago to demonstrate its displeasure in the one practical manner that everyone in Dunedin will appreciate—with two resounding victories. For this reason Canterbury will have a fight on its hands.

The defence is probably the best at the selector’s command. Last season, “Player of the Year,” the left-half, G. Donaldson, was not available for the match, but Donaldson has lost a little of his speed in this season’s early games, although he continues to make astute use of the ball.

D. Chapman is a reliable goal-keeper with sure hands and excellent distribution; the backs, P. Flynn and A. Hawthorne, combine rugged defence with the speed to take the ball up and recover quickly; the right-half, A. Gowans, has great potential; the centre-half, G. Evans, and the left-half, D. Simmonds. are as strong a pair of defenders as can be found in any provincial team. The forward line, however, does not impress in the same manner, although it may come right on the day. A great deal will depend on the ability of P. Frost, at inside-left, to weld the two sections of the team into a striking unit. Mr Smith made what might turn out to be an inspired switch in last Sunday’s trial game when he

moved Frost from left-half to inside-left with the score 0-0. Frost’s team cracked in five goals in the second half. This probably won him the place in the team from the Shamrock captain, H. Taylor, who was previously favourite for the link up role with Gowans between the forwards and defenders.

The injury to W. Logan has sent D. Torkington out to the wing when his natural ability and preference is to inside-left, but under the 4-2-4 formation, Torkington can strike as often through the centre as he can down the line. M. Clements’ ankle injury forced his withdrawal from the team and the inclusion of his Western colleague, D. Bussey, ’at centre-forward. Bussey could not have been given a more arduous debut. He will be opposed to the

Canterbury has a greater task ahead of it, against the German team, Munster, at English Park on May 27. There will be little time to iron out any faults that appear in its make-up at Dunedin before the match with Munster, so Otago will

be a vital test in every way. very experienced and capable Otago centre-half, captain and coach, J. Ferguson. On the right flank P. Kay (inside-right) and A. Verham (right-wing) are both potential goal-getters. Kay has thoroughly deserved his selection but he will be even more effective against Otago if he cuts out a ten-

dency to hold on to the ball a vital Second longer than is necessary. The Otago defenders will be quick to pounce on the man who delays his pass and for the success of 4-2-4 it is essential that the ball should move quickly and accurately from man to man.