SOCCER Sheffield’s Late Goal Beats Blackpool

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30764, 31 May 1965, Page 10

SOCCER Sheffield’s Late Goal Beats Blackpool

(By

Out Soccer Reporter.J

All the blacks and whites, and the many shades of grey of English League soccer v-<» transported 12,500 miles to Christchurch on Saturday when Sheffield United edged ahead of Blackpool in a closely-fought, 2-1 victory before a capacity crowd at English Park.

Sheffield now moves on to the next match, at Invercargill on Wednesday, leading the 11-match 8.0A.C. round robin tournament by three wins to two. After Invercargill, the two teams will play at Dunedin (Saturday), Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Auckland.

After the final whistle had gone, the last of the hundreds of children had been cleared off the pitch, and the last lingering spectator had left the ground one question seemed to hang over the whole proceedings.

Was this the kind of soccer nearly 10,000 persons had paid more than £3OOO to watch? The argument will continue for a long time yet.

There were many who grumbled, many more who praised, for the match was all things to some, less to others.

It was hard, fast, and nearly always extremely skilful. It was also pitted with errors, particularly of ball distribution. In fact, this was the bread and butter match of the English League first division competition, and for those who had expected, and wanted pretty exhibition football it must have come as a rude awakening. Teams: BLACKPOOL: A. Waiters: J.| Armfield, T. Thompson; J. McPhee G. .lames, N. Turner; I. Moir, J. Robson. R. Charnley, J. Green, D. Horne. (L. Lea renlaced Horne for the second half). SHEFFIELD: A. Hodgkinson; C. Coldwell, K. Mallender; J. Munks, J. Shaw, B. Wagstaff: A. Woodward, A. Wagstaff, A. Birchenall. R. Mathewson, G. Reece. (J. Docherty replaced Birchenall in the second half.) True Fascination The keenness to win. the urge to fight for every ball and the close marking and hard tackling nrevented either team from playing the exhibition football that might have delighted the purists and exasperated the competitive minded. In its place was al! that is best and some of which Is worst, which gives soccer its true fascination. The game had three magnificent goals of the. kind that draws from the crowd the fullthroated roar: there was. too. brilliant goal-keeping by Waiters. of Blackpool, and Hodgkinson. of Sheffield whose handling, distribution and dictatorial control of their own area was a revelation in itself. Forced Into Error

There was the tight defensive marking that forced the opposition to control and pass in one movement, and when a pass went, astray this was as much a victory for the defenders as a weakness of the attackers. Yet for every pass that failed to find its man. a dozen and more went to the feet of the intended player. There was. also, the incredible speed at which the game was played for the whole 90 minutes.

Possibly because it was played too fast, and neither side made the attempt to slow the game down and keep possession, the flow of the football was staccato rather than smooth. But that is another kind of soccer, nlaved by another kind of footballer, and Blackpool’s and Sheffield’s was the hallmark of the more rugged, more usual English game.

Many impressions will remain The brilliant heading of Blackpool’s centre-forward, Charnley. who seemed to defy the law of gravity for the split second while he neatly deflected the ball from one side or the other. From one such brilliant piece of play Blackpool nearly scored a second goal. Then there was the terrier-like play of the tall, fair-headed Blackpool left-half, Turner, who played at the one speed throughout the game and tackled with the determination and purpose of a lion, and blunted many Sheffield attacks by his splitsecond anticipation. Wandering Matthewson There was. too. the wanderings of Sheffield’s inside-left, Matthewson, who had a No. 10 on his back but one moment would pop up behind his defenders and the next in front of his forwards. Matthewson, normally a half-back and playing his first as an inside-forward, was given a roving commission to go wherever he wanted. The whole field was his backyard and there were few spots he did not trample on throughout the 90 minutes. Although Blackpool lost, it was its forward line which impressed the most. Better organised and moving more smoothly, it created considerably more openings, but was finally beaten by the solid Sheffield defence, brilliantly led by the centrehalf. Shaw. Two or three inches shorter than Charnley. Shaw was often beaten in the air, but such was his reading of the game and his clever marshalling of his co-defenders that Blackpool was less a danger to Sheffield’s goal than were Sheffield’s more frequent and less well-organised attacks on the Blackpool goal. But when all else is forgotten the one man who will probably remain in most people’s memory is the Blackpool goal-keep-er* Waiters. Ballet Dancer’s Grace This 6ft 3in giant, with all the grace in motion of a ballet dancer and the commanding presence of a sergeant-major on the barrack square, talked for ihe whole 90 minutes, calling advice and warnings even when play was out of his half. He left no-one in any doubt that he was watching and appreciating everything that went on. And his taking of the high balls, soaripg a foot above his opponents. was goal-keeping as an art

Both teams used the long ball, sweeping it to the wings and through the centre to break the defensive cordon, but it was in this department that play broke down and produced the greatest disappointment. On a pitch 10 yards shorter in lengGi than both clubs are used to. these long through passes too often were easily collected by the goal-keepers. It took some time for both teams to adapt themselves to the narrower spaces The play on the wings was another disappointment, and only the Sheffield winger Horne, a South African, showed this art at its best. Unfortunately, Horne was injured in the first half and was replaced at the interval, and missed the sec-

ond half when the best of the football was produced. / Too often the wing play broke down through slow control of the ball, and one of the classic means of attack was sadly missing from the game. Two Quick Goals

Two of the three goals came within four minutes, on either side of half-time. Sheffield took the lead in the 43rd minute when the young Welsh under 23 international, Reece, moved inside, passed one defender and beat Waiters with a rasning shot that went in off the side of a post.

Two minutes after the interval Blackpool was on level terms with an equally brilliant goal. An accurately-placed cross by the outside-left, Lea. who had replaced Horne, beat the Shef field defence, and Robson threw himself inches off the ground to bead through a masterly goal The winning goal came 10 minutes from the end. and brought Matthewson thf* reward he deserved. A. Wagstaff crossed into the middle and the tall, cturdv inside-left neatly glided the ball wide of Waiters’s gropin'7 fingers. There wore many other goalmouth thrills. In the first minute Waiters, almost nonchalantly. flinned the ball over the ton * one-handed, and at the other end Horne’s shot was only inches too high. Chip Went Wide Sheffield had the first real chance when A. "Wagstaff was nut through by Coldwell but his attempt to chip the ball over Waiters’s head went a yard wide. Then Hodgkinson brilliantly saved from Charnley and from the long clearance Waiters left his goal area and showed his improvisation by heading the ball away from the advancing Sheffield forwards. Then it was Waiters’s turn again, this time to save in the corner from Coldwell, the Sheffield back, who went down the line like a greyhound to chase a through ball. Blackpool’s line was next to be threatened and Thompson brilliantly positioned, headed clear when Waiters was beaten.

Onlv a short while before Sheffield scored the winning goal, Blackpool was desperately unlucky not to score, after having attacked strongly for a long period. Charnley, with great delicacy, flicked on a free-kick by McPhee to Moir, but the right-winger’s header hit the underside of the bar and rebounded out. And so a game in which many of the professional’s skills were dismayed, most particularly his ability to improvise when the occasion was necessary, came to an end with Sheffield the winner, and possibly a little lucky. Referee: Mr R. W. Cullen; linesmen, Messrs M. W. Littlewood, C. Anderson.