Jones Cup Soccer Win For Canterbury

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 16

Jones Cup Soccer Win For Canterbury

The soccer cupboard will not be bare after all. Canterbury retained the Jones Cup when it outplayed Otago, 3-0, at English Park on Saturday and retained the symbol of soccer supremacy between the provinces’ senior teams, 4-3, on the aggregate of goals for the two matches in the home-and-away competition.

Otago had won the first leg, 3-1, in Dunedin earlier in the season.

This was a good win by Canterbury to wind up a disappointing season.

It was a weaker Otago team than the one that had beaten Canterbury in Dunedin, which, itself, had been well below the all-round strength of Otago teams in recent years. But Canterbury took its chances, and took them well, and there was never much doubt about the eventual winner. Gained Early Control The forwards went out from the start to gain early control, and there were more shots at the Otago goal in the first 15 minutes than there had been in the whole hour and a half against Sing Tao. Admittedly, the Otago defence was not the wellequipped, soundly-constructed unit Sing Tao’s had been, nor was there such an urgent need for Canterbury to withdraw all its forces into defence. But rarely before this season have all five Canterbury forwards been given their head quite so freely from the kick-off. But it was not a forward who starred in this match but a wing-half—A. Gowans, the 1965 Canterbury “Soccer Player of the Year.” His was a great performance, dominant in all phases of play, and particularly in mid-field and behind the Canterbury forwards. Gowans had a foot in ail

three goals, was a destructiveconstructive force in mid-field and formed an excellent partnership with the right-buck, K. France, from whom he picked up much of the ball he was able to turn swiftly into attacking movements. CONTAINED France and his fellow fullback, A. Hawthorn, came through the match with added honours, having contained their wingmen and stilled Otago's principal source of attack. Hawthorn had possibly the more difficult task for Otago’s right-wing, G. McLean, proved an elusive player, often popping up in the middle when danger was threatened. In the first half he was the only Otago forward who seemed likely to break through the Canterbury defence, and he went very close with a shot that hit the top of the bar.

However, although this was an improved performance by the Canterbury attack, it was far from being the complete answer. There were weaknesses on both wings, where W. Logan and C. Hicks were not successes. Logan never managed to raise his game above a trot nor did he get into the play often enough to keep any pressure on the Otago right-flank. Hicks was far more often in the game, but he made Otago's task easier by releasing the ball too quickly and too often straight to an opponent. Rarely did he carry it to the line from where he would have been able to put more pressure on the Otago defence. Gowans, In fact, was a greater danger deep in the Otago half. DESERVED HIS COAL The inside trio of A. Brooks, R. Taylor and T. Conley worked tremendously hard for the whole 90 minutes, and Taylor, if anyone did, deserved the goal he got. But he did not deserve to have his name taken by the referee, Mr W. Robinson, who seemed to forget that when a goal-keeper turns his back on a challenging forward he is more to blame than the at-

tacker if he it charted unfairly. The other Gowans, BrUn, gave G. Donaldson fine support in Canterbury’s defence. Although Donaldson did little wrong, he did not play with the same authority he showed against Sing Tao. However, in one aspect of play Donaldson and the Canterbury defence was not well supported. Far too often, when Canterbury was moving the ball out of defence, there were huge gaps in front of the defenders, and there was, in consequence, a good scrambling football. BRILLIANT SAVE

In goal, 0. Nuttridge dealt very capably with Otago's few clear-cut shots. He made one brilliant save from S. White, who came on as a replacement when W. Price was injured early in the second half. Nuttridge dived full length to turn White’s powerful shot around the post. Canterbury’s goals were spaced out, in the forty-third, seventy-sixth and eighty-fourth minutes. The first followed tenacious work by A. Gowans and Hicks, a magnificent centre by Gowans, which the bulldozing Taylor bundled into the net. Gowans, going lijte a tank, broke through the Otago defence to make the second goal He was fouled in the area and deserved to get a penalty, but the ball went loose and Conley fired it into the net. This ended a swift, 90-yard movement in which France and Hicks were also concerned, Gowans was at the start of the third and final goal, feeding the ball to Hicks who, for once, took it down the wing before crossing. The Otago right-back, A. Hutton, was menaced on both sides, by Conley and Taylor, and attempting to give away a corner, put the ball into his own goat. HONEST AND HARD Otago's play, at all times, was honest and hard, but it lacked skill and variety. The patterns it wove were much the same from the first to the last minute, and it had no-6ne like A. Gowans to blaze a trail. It sadly missed the threat of C. Rennie on the right-wing, the constructive play of A. Caldwell at right-half and the defensive soundness of W Kennedy at centre-half. M. McKenzie did a workmanlike job as Kennedy’s replacement, but he did not use the ball with Kennedy's crispness and accuracy. It was a good win by Canterbury, even though it was against a team that did not shine in any department. But it was a win—Canterbury’s first in a major provincial match this season. Too, the victory was clear-cut and the chances were taken. And that was something to celebrate. Teams: Canterbury: 0. Nuttridge: K. France, A. Hawthorn; A. Gowans, G, Dona'ldson, B. Gowans; C. Hicks, T. Conley, R. Taylor, A. Brooks, W. Logan. Otago: I. Graves; A. Hutton, J. Rae; P. Lawson, M. McKenzie, B. Boomer; G. McLean, W. Price, G. Little, R. Neilson, J. Ferrier.