Semi-finalists Found In Chatham Cup

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31381, 29 May 1967, Page 15

Semi-finalists Found In Chatham Cup

The Canterbury section of the Chatham Cup reached its semi-final stage on Saturday when Christchurch City, New Brighton, Western and Shirley-Nomads won their quarter-final ties. The match of the day was City’s win over Technical.

Only in the last 10 minutes did City manage to push itself ahead after being at full pressure to keep out a very lively Technical team.

Brighton had the help of three gift goals to beat High School Old Boys, and it was a goal deflected into the net off a defender which enabled Shirley-Nomads to overcome Rangers.

As expected, Western was the most convincing winner, cracking in seven goals without reply against its second division opponent, Celtic. The semi-finals will be played at English Park on Saturday, June 10. Results:—

City 2, Technical 0. Brigbun 4, H. 5.0.8. 0. Western T, Celtic 0. Shirley 2, Rangers 1. Player’s Nightmare

The young Old Boys goalkeeper, D. Hadlee, playing his first game for the senior side, had a nightmare of a match against Brighton at Mclntosh Park. He was responsible far more than Brighton's forwards for the first three goals, and was beaten decisively only once, with the last kick of the match.

Hadlee punched the first goal into his own net, dived over a weak shot from A. Caine, and allowed a drive from K. Morgans to fly over his head. The final goal was out of his reach. G. Spiers pulling the ball back from the line and Caine having an open goal from two yards range. Although these gift goals helped to flatter Brighton’s winning margin, it was not completely unjustified. The seasiders twice hit the woodwork with Hadlee beaten, and had more than 65 per cent of the play. Even so. it was not an impressive win, and the score

in the record book will look more convincing than Brighton did. Thre was little rhythm about Brighton’s play, even less about the Old Boys’, and the spectators became as fidgety and frustrated as the players. Movements broke down as fast as they began, and on a pitch just uneven enough to be awkward, there was only a certain grimness about the football, nothing to delight or to entertain. A player or two stood out, B. Wilkinson and P. Coman for Old Boys, G. Davis and K. France for Brighton, but their abilities only tended to show up the failings of the others. Wilkinson is beginning to dominate every game in which he plays; on Saturday he was a powerhouse of energy and a player of rare quality. Wilkinson never gives up, never stops running, never holds a ball longer than necessary, rarely wastes a pass. No one player can win a gime—which is unfortunate, because Wilkinson did not deserve to be on the losing side. When Coman moved into the forward line in the second half it was the only time the Old Boys looked like scoring. Coman had a great tussle with Davis, a battle royal in miniature, and Coman twice beat the talented young Brighton back for speed and twice narrowly missed scoring. France, as usual, was the general in Brighton’s team. A player who never misses a trick, he must have been responsible for Hadlee’s early discomfiture and for the mistakes the goalkeeper made later. Knowing that Hadlee was playing his first senior game, Brighton’s forwards gave him no rest, and it was in this unsettled state that Hadlee gave away the first goal, the ball spinning off his fist when he had the opportunity to catch it. He was on tenterhooks for the rest of the game. Although given magnificent support by Wilkinson, the Old Boys’ forwards never clicked. Their passing was sadly astray, slowing down the build-up of movements, and too often they ran across the field, giving the Brighton defenders even longer to consolidate. Old Boys have produced some excellent play in the Hurley Shield this season: they probably wish they

had saved some of it for the cup.

Scraped Through

Although City left the field at the end of its quarter-final match winner by two clear goals, Technical had given the championship leader the scare of the season. Indeed, had the goalkeeper, I. Marshall, not suffered a lapse in the last few minutes, the game would certainly have gone into extratime.

Throughout the first half City had been the aggressor. It had earned five corners to two for Technical, and the attacking play had been in its favour to about the same ratio. However, for all this prominence, City was unable to get in a really telling shot. The change of wing positions was not successful. While R. Bruce on the right was able to play his natural game, C. Martin on the other flank, with the ball so often on his left foot, just could not achieve fluent movement. Many times Martin was well placed to run in and shoot, but was unable to do so from the unaccustomed position. There had been clear-cut scoring chances for City in this half. One instance saw Marshall rise high to punch the ball away while three City forwards challenged him. His clearance only found M. Clements, but his first-time drive went high over the bar. The best scoring attempt during the first half, in fact, came from Technical. The constantly-im-proving C. Jones received the ball 25 yards out from the City goal and with the minimum of fuss he drove it hard, forcing O. Nuttridge to move very smartly to save.

With no score at half-time, both player-coaches, G. Evans (City) and J. Chalmers, must have done a lot of hard talking about the chances that had not been taken. City lined up to restart with Martin back on right and Bruce on the left wing, but this change had no immediate effect. Rather than improving, City was pushed more and more on the defensive.

For Technical, the young out-side-right, P. Hyland, who had been too timid in the first half, found he could beat the fullback, W. McKenna, and as his confidence grew, he began to make openings from his wing equal to thos-e W. Logan was making on the left. The centreforward, P. Kay, tried hard to break free from Evans, but only when the ball was on the ground did he look to have any chance.

During Technical’s period of pressure Jones took an outswinging corner which W. Blows dived low to head into the goalmouth. Kay pounced on the ball and shot fiercely on the turn. To his dismay, Nuttridge had moved as fast and was there to fling himself at the ball and deflect it for a corner.

As the half wore on desperation came into the City play, tackles became over-fierce and the referee, Mr H. G. Royce, had to be very firm to keep control. T. Haydon, for City, put his team back in control when he fired in a 25-yard shot with about 10 minutes of play left. It was a great shot, a goal all the way until Marshall, with a brilliant diving save, turned it away for a corner.

But in these last minutes City started and tjie first goal came when Martin’s low hard drive came off Marshall’s chest and R. Taylor, following up, rammed the ball home. Within two minutes, Bruce shot goalwards and this time Martin was on hand to finish the job.

Keenness Pays Shirley-Nomads kept up a fairly constant pressure on Rangers to gain a narrow victory. Their play lacked finesse and enthusiasm and individual efforts replaced constructive team movements.

As is often the case, the defence was capable of setting up attacks, but rarely were these capitalised on by the forwards. Rarely did A. Nottingham, in the Rangers’ goal, have to exert himself, the ones that did beat him were a penalty and a deflection off a defender.

For a period in the second half, during which A. Smythe made the most of a defensive error. Rangers hammered away for further successes, but was foiled by K. Flintham. However, there was one glorious opportunity to even the score but a mis-kick from about five yards spoilt it. There was little to choose between the defences although J. Kissack and A. Gordon, for Shirley, possibly provided that extra cover necessary to keep the opposition from scoring. K. Ouwerkerk (penalty) and G. Cooper scored for Shirley, Smythe for Rangers.

Hit For Seven The wide gap between first and second division soccer was demonstrated by Western’s 7-0 victory over Celtic at Western Park. The unfancied Celtic fought hard 1 for the whole 90 minutes, even when reduced to 10 then for the final 20 minutes, but was never in sight of springing the biggest surprise for many years. Western's strength blunted all Celtic’s attacks and it became only a question of how many goals last year’s national finalist would score. It was finally resolved at seven, it could have been more. In any case, the match was one-sided from start to finish.

The young centre-forward, S. Smith, playing only his second game for the senior side, scored four times, the New Zealand representative, C. Rennie, added two, and D. Bussey completed the scoring.