CITY TOO CASUAL

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31677, 13 May 1968, Page 8

CITY TOO CASUAL

A freak, but net undeserved goal with 15 minutes of play remaining pushed City off the the pinnacle af southern league soccer, In the early Rama at'Rngllsh Park. And « the final analysis. City can look back to the first 20 minutes to find the reason for Its having surrendered both points to Western. During this period City dominated play, having as much as 80 per cent of possession, bringing constant pressure on the Western defence. But underlining its play was a hint ot casualness, even cockiness, as if it was only a matter of time when it would start building up an unbeatable score. There was plenty of champing and chawing, but of the toothless variety. Under the cooling influence ot P. Frost at centre-half and D. Bussey at wing-half, Western slowly pushed back the tide, and with this Initial success came the realisation that City was Just another team on this day. Now it was Western's turn to mount pressure on City’s defence, with ever-growing confidence. The team settled down to play well above its previous form this season, with Bussey now the prompter-tn-chlef in the mid-field, breaking up attacks with intelligent interceptions and feeding his forwards with flowing passes. City now found Itself in trouble, its earlier casual attitude having been its undoing. For now that it had to tighten Its play several notches, City was unable to make the transformation quickly enough. Instead, it became desperate. With its tall high and wagging furiously. Western kept pressing. It was tar from a faultless display, but it had a momentum that often rolled over City and was strong enough to prevent City mounting concentrated counter attacks. More and more mistakes crept Into City’s play and its movements rarely got beyond the third pass. The clinching goal was a chapter of errors. . The City right-back, A. Westwood, hgd time to clear; his goal-keeper. O. Nuttridge. intervened, and the Western forward, M. Smith, just got his boot to the ball during the momentary hesitation between Westwood and Nuttridge. The ball rolled slowly. 15 yards, and across the goal-line. City's attack was a thing of bits and pieces. F. Madrussan was well held by R. Miller and the path through the middle was affectively stifled by Frost. There was, in fact, only one real City movement that set up the chance of a goal, and from it A. Gowans sent a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area an inch or so too high. For the rest, it was a painful lesson to the City players—no side can be taken for (ranted. Double Inspiration

Two players stood out as heroic figures in Technical’s defeat of Shamrock—the stocky, fearless W. Weir in goal and the little bundle of energy, B. Wilkinson. Their deeds combined to send Shamrock doivn to its first defeat of the season

and to bring back, albeit still omewhat dimmed, a brighter glow to Technical s play. There cannot have been a patch of English Park deserted by Wilkinson. His was the greatest non-stop performance In a series of great non-stop performances. His tackling had that little extra bite, he won the ball when it seemed Impossible for him to do so, and he rarely wasted a pass. And It was his splendid shot near the end that brought Technical its second goal and put the match out of Shamrock s reach

Weir, in his own sphere, was equally commanding. He made one spectacular diving save from a shot by W. Yales that looked to be a certain goal, and three limes dived al the feet of oncoming forwards when had he waited a split second longer he might have been beaten. In the face of these two Inspired performances, a depleted Shamrock offered only energy, strength and hard running. Often they threatened a goal, and there was a period in the second half when they looked like over-running the Technical defence. But the determination of Weir, A. Hawthorn, G. Davis, and S. Squire, In particular, never wavered. And Technical’s second goal finally knocked the stuffing out of Shamrock. The young centre-forward. A. Caine, got both of the goals, the first in the second minute and the next 75 minutes later. The Shamrock goal-keeper. M. McGirr. mishandled Caine s header from a corner to concede the first goal, and the second was made by Wilkinson, whose shot rebounded off the bar for Caine to add the finishing touch. The loss of K. Sudlow (replaced by J. Sullivan) at halftime was a blow to Shamrock. The team’s player-coach might have been able to blot out the growing confidence of the Technical players in the second half. But this was a match that will go down as Wilkinson’s and weir's. It may sound like a comedy act —but Shamrock did not find them amusing. One-Way Goal Rush Ten minutes of even football. 80 minutes of one-way traffic—and that summed up Rangers’ overwhelming win over Queen’s Park at Riccarton Domain. Rangers scored seven, hit the woodwork five times and overcrowded each other in the second half when they might have run up a cricket score. So complete was Rangers’ domination of the second half that the Invercargill team, which has now conceded 38 goals In five matches, got Into the Rangers penalty area once when It forced a corner.

The Rangers centre-forward. B. Hammond, had a head In the first three goals—but was not credited with one of them. Two of his headers rebounded off the bar. allowing W. Robinson and G. Adam to score at the second attempt, and the third was handled to prevent the ball entering the goal, and T. Haydon scored from the penalty. However. Hammond scored one of the later goals, Adam added his second. D. Torktngton picked up one. and a defender finally put the ball through his own goal. Queen’s Park’s only scoring

chance came in the first 18 minutes, before Rangers had opened their account. A defensive slip let through A. Gurney, but D. Spraggs quickly narrowed the sight of the goal and made a difficult save look easy. From then on it was all Rangers—and an almost nonstop battering on the Queen's Park goal, under which the 'keeper, A. Peel, did extremely well to keep the total down to seven. Harsh Penalty Shirley-Nomads went to within three minutes of scoring an upset win over Mosgiel be fore a big crowd at Dunedin Then. Mosgiel was awarded a penalty a harsh decision against K. Ouwerkerk—and the Dunedin team equalised. to take a share of the points in a 2-2 draw. This was another improving performance by Shirley, which has put the club within touch of the leaders after a poor start to the season. The former New Zealand International, A. van Rooyen, returned to lead the attack after a long absence from the game, and scored one of Shirley’s goals. The other was netted by G. Cooper. 4-0 WIN TO S.I. BOYS The South Island under-14 soccer team scored a very convincing 4-0 victory over the North Island at Wellington on Saturday. The South Island boys won mid-field domination in the first 38 minutes, and from then on always held command. Its goals were scored by H. Nauta (2). C. Wiltshire and N. Francis.