Technical Clips City’s Wings

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30818, 2 August 1965, Page 6

Technical Clips City’s Wings

The South Island Chatham Cup finalist, Christchurch City dropped only its second point in 13 months when it was held to a 2-2 draw by Technical Old Boys in the second round of the O’Briens tournament at English Park on Saturday.

The other match at the park was also drawn, Shamrock and Nomads sharin gsix goals. A feature of both games was the fight-back through the mud, sleet and gale of Technical (0-2 down) and Shamrock (1-3 down). The third O’Briens tournament match was abandoned after 40 minutes when Western was leading Rangers, 2-0. In the C. E. Keys Cup, the two first division clubs, High School Old Boys and New Brighton, both beat their second division opponents. Results: — O’BRIENS TOURNAMENT City 2, Technical 2. Shamrock 3, Nomads 3. Western 2, Rangers 0 (aband-

A Mud Lark Skidding and sliding through the worst ground conditions for many years, the drenched and frozen City and Technical players produced a game that held the interest right to the final whistle. It was to the credit of both teams that so much good football was played, for had the

game been abandoned when the first sleet storm roared down on them after 30 minutes not one of the small number of spectators would have raised a whisper of protest. But a very hardy referee, Mr R. W. Cullen, decided to keep the game alive and the players respondd wholeheartedly. With goals in the seventeenth and forty-ninth minutes, City led 2-0 and looked at that stage to be clearly on top. But Technical fought back magnificently for its centre-forward, A. Wardle, to score twice, the first from a fine pass by J. Chalmers and the second after a defensive lapse by W. McKenna. The City left-back tried to dribble the ball out of the mud of his goalmouth, and Wardle pounced on it without any hesitation.

City’s first goal was a lucky affair, a centre from A. Gowans hitting a defender’s foot and flying high over the goalkeeper’s head. The second was a spectacular header by A. Gowans from F. Madrussen's ac-curately-placed corner kick. There were several other near misses and two very fine saves by R. Storer, from A. Gowens in the first half and R. Taylor with two minutes of play remaining. Each team had an outstanding player—G. Griffiths, the Technical centre-half, and Taylor, the City inside-left. Griffiths made only two bad passes in conditions that would have excused many more: Taylor worked like two men to Reep his attack moving and was probably the muddiest of many dirty-looking players after 90 minutes. There were other fine performances by the Gowans brothers and A. Westwood in the City defence, and Madrussen in the forward line until he drifted out of the game in the final stages. For Technical, A. Cameron, B. Dent and I. Graham combined with Griffiths to produce a solid defence. Shamrock Habit Shamrock has a habit of doing things the hard way, or so its recent games indicate. Not for the first time Shamrock has produced its best football when the result seemed beyond its control and Saturday’s 1-3 recovery to 3-3 was one of the best of the many. Shamrock’s former Canterbury right-half, H. Taylor, inspired this latest rally. Taylor has lost his place in the Canterbury team but not his ability to rise above the mud and heavy grounds. The score was 1-1 at half-time, with goals by R. Muirson (Nomads) and J. Killick (penalty), and then Nomads raced ahead when Muirson scored an excellent second goal an.d H. Nelson took every advantage of a weak pass back to the goalkeeper. This was the signal for Shamrock, the all too familiar one.

Taylor, and his other winghalf, P. Barrett, heard it lound and clear. The pair began to dominate the mid-field as Nomads eased off the pressure. A shot by Barrett rebounded off the bar, and then Taylor slipped the ball between the backs for W. Yates to score Shamrock’s second goal. Now the game began to swing either way before it came down once more on Shamrock’s side. There was a hint of desperation in much that Nomads did, as if the whole team suddenly be? came conscious that Shamrock was on familiar ground. Another very neat Taylor pass was nodded down by J. Rae and J. Logue, from close in, netted the equaliser. T. Reilly and J. Toal both did many good things in the Shamrocks defence, ToaL controlling the ball extremely well in the mud. The forward line did not move as a unit and although there were several good individual bursts many chances were wasted by trying to walk the ball into the net. Nomads played well for threequarters of the game while R. Batchelor and R. Dean were feeding the ball through, but the forwards did not make the most of their chances during this long period. Referee: Mr V. Smith. S.I. Final Won By Otago (N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, August 1. Otago was too strong and dominated much of the play when it beat Nelson, 8-0, in the South Island final of the Junior National Cup soccer competition on a sea of mud at Culling Park today. Otago could score only one goal in the first half and the second spell was well advanced before it began to make the final penetration through the weary Nelson defence and pile on six goals in the last 20 minutes.

oned after 40min). P W Goals D L F A Pts City 2 1 1 0 6 2 3 Jjchnical .. 2 1 1 0 5 3 3 vVestern .. 1 1 0 0 3 2 2 Shamrock 2 0 1 1 5 6 1 Nomads 2 0 1 1 4 6 1 Rangers 1 0 0 1 0 4 0 C. E KEYS CUP H.S.O.B. 7, Waterside 3. Brighton 3 Wigram 1 Goals P W D L F A PtS H.S.O.B. .. 2 1 1 0 8 4 3 Brighton .. 2 1 1 0 4 2 3 Waterside 2 1 0 1 8 10 2 Wigram 2 0 0 2 4 8 0