Cup Retained By Auckland

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31761, 19 August 1968, Page 12

Cup Retained By Auckland

Scoring the winning goal in extra time, Auckland retained the Junior National Cup when it beat Canterbury, 3-2, in the under*lB’s soccer tournament final at English Park on Saturday.

It was a tragic match for the young Shamrock goal-keeper, S. Cooper. Three times he made magnificent saves; twice he made errors that cost Canterbury goals and gave Auckland victory.

Over-all, however, Auckland just deserved to win. The northern side was slightly

stronger, a little better coordinated, and fractionally more dangerous in attack. In addition, Canterbury's two goals were also gifts from the gods, the first a bad mistake on the part of the Auckland goal-keeper, B. Munro, who was deceived by the bounce, and the second a penalty with only two minutes of scheduled time available. Like A Veteran Had Canterbury managed to score the winning goal in extra time, or had the match remained even and the trophy shared, its hero would have been the team’s captain and left-back, P. Hyland. The Technical player had the awful responsibility of taking the penalty, knowing that if he missed Canterbury would not get another chance of saving the match. Like a veteran, he placed his shot well outside Munro’s reach. Cooper’s first blunder allowed Auckland to go ahead, 2-1; he should have allowed the ball to go behind for a goal-kick. Instead, he tried to stop it» lost possession, and gave the New Zealand representative, D. Taylor. a gift. In the second period of extra time Cooper stood leadenfooted as a weak shot by G. Hope-Ede, from outside the penalty area bobbled its way into tne corner of the net. Hany Good Things

Yet, Cooper had done so many fine things; he did not deserve to be the villain of the piece. Auckland’s greatest strength lay in its full-backs, T. Bell and S. Peters, and its insideforwards, R. Ormond and D. Tindall. Canterbury’s only players in the same class were S. Squire and M. Blight. The weakest part of Canterbury’s play was Its failure to gain Immediate control of the ball and the tendency of the centre-forward. M. Ellis to back-track In possession. There were gaps through the middle of Auckland’s defence and they were not exploited to the full. Canterbury had its unlucky moments when G. Storer’s shot rebounded off a post and C. Cawley drove into the side netting. But the result was a fair one on the run of play. But it was desperately close all the way.