HAUNTING MEMORY

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31773, 2 September 1968, Page 9

HAUNTING MEMORY

“It will haunt me for ever” —that was how the dejected Rangers player-coach, T. Haydon, summed up the penalty he missed that would have wen his club the seuthern league soccer championship against Christchurch City on Saturday. The award came in the twenty-third minute when the City left-back, W. McKenna, used his elbows to keep an opponent off the ball and after B, Hammond had put Rangers ahead and D. Watson had equalised. It was a tense moment—andi most of the drama was being' played out unknown to the largest crowd of the season for a league match at English Park. : PREVIOUS MISSES Haydon, who had three times, previously this season missed penalty kicks, motioned to D. Torkington to take it: Torkington was reluctant. Haydon next: asked V. Pollard; he, too, declined. It was not a time to argue.: Haydon was forced to take the kick himself and one more; nerve-wracking, ordeal had to be played out. City protested that the ball; was not on the snot and thei referee. Mr R. McDonald <Dun-> edin), delayed the kick. Haydon! had to replace the ball and 1 start all over again. His kick missed; the ball sped 1 by the left-hand post at least ■ two yards wide. Memories immediately went back to last vear’s Chatham Cup I final when Haydon, then play- • ing for Christchurch City, was fouled In the area by a North Shore defender. The score, too, was 1-1. A. Gowans took the penalty, missed. and North Shore went on to win the cup. OTHER CHANCES WASTED But if the penalty was the crucial moment of the whole match, it was not the last occa sion Rangers had to win the title. Twice more they had giltedged chances of scoring—but in the twenty-ninth and forty-: fourth minutes of the second! half, first W. Robinson and then Torkington lifted their shots over the bar from 12 yards out.; A handicapped City, which lost R. Taylor with a badly. twisted ankle in the fortysecond minute and had the young S. Cameron as his re-; placement for the whole of the second half, desperately held out in the last 20 minutes when Rangers poured through attack after attack. For long periods City had nine and 10 players in defence des ¥erately clearing their lines, he ball was fired out of play or downfield, and Rangers swept back on attack. The pattern was hardly varied as the minutes ticked away and it was then that City’s defence rose to the occasion.

The Gowans brothers, Tony and Brian, performed heroic deeds, A. Westwood, the right-

back. clamped his authority on Robinson G. Evans shepherded his men for the final backs-to-the-ball defiance, and O. Nuttridge excelled himself in goal. Three times Nuttrldge hurled himself through the air to pluck the ball; off the heads of Rangers’ forwards. Once he hurt a thigh muscle, once he was

winded, but he denied Rangers the goal they so richly deserved. LONG-AWAITED WHISTLE The final whistle was an anticlimax. For City, it never seemed to be coming; for Rangers, it was always coming too quickly. And it was a ineasure of the pace at which the match had been played and the tension it had aroused that it took the players a second or two to realise the battle was over. It was never football in the classic mould; everything was too tight for that—nerves, marking and tackling. It was all but in name a cup tie, and as such produced dozens bf incidents and goalmouth excitement, but little flowing, fluent football. The pattern was set in the opening minutes and did not vary until Rangers took the match by the scruff of the neck in the later stages. Watson at one end. Torkington at the other, sent headers high and wide in the opening attacks: then A. Gowans shot wide and i B. Gowans made a great interception to keep the pot boiling. The first break-through came from Hammond, whose persistence won him the ball from Evans, and his shot went into the net off a post. This success set the Rangers supporters in full voice, and their shouts of “white, white” were still being roared out when City equalised two minutes later. A. Gowans took the ball on the right-wing, and although closely challenged by C. Pickrtll, managed to send a low centre into the goalmouth. Watson, with the neatest of flicks, deflected the ball out of D. Spraggs’s reach. Checked by Defender The danger that always lurks with Pollard on the edge of the penalty area exploded again, but this time his low shot was checked by a defender and saved by Nuttridge Both goals came under more pressure after the penalty miss, M. Blight putting a long-range effort over the bar, T. Ward heading a yard too high and Watson, given a good chance by Taylor in the incident in which he was injured, shooting into Spraggs’s hands. The pattern continued. J. Logue. F. Madrussan and A. Gowans, at one end, Hammond and Robinson at the other making their bids to score the winning goal. Then followed the one-way traffic as Rangers gained control and City dropped back into defence—and the stalemate that for the second time this season was unbroken. In their first round match, City and Rangers drew, 1-1. Pollard was the man of the match, a tremendous worker and constructive agent in midfield and a powerful Influence on the last 20 minutes’ play. Matching him were the Gowans brothers, each in his own way thoroughly effective. Weakness on Wings Some of the power went out of City's attack as Madrussan, lacking support inside him. was

marked and tackled out of the match by the combination of T. Platt and Pollard. In addition. City lost more power by moving Watson inside and putting Logue on the wing for most of the first half and by the withdrawal of Taylor for all of the second. Cameron could not have had

a more difficult baptism—and with better shooting might have had a sensational debut. Twice he ran on to chances but was not capable of taking them. Before he missed the penalty Haydon was his usual powerful influence in mid-field and around the goal. Afterwards, the sting went out of his play and it was Pollard who bore the brunt of Rangers’ build-up play in the second half. It was a titanic struggle to end the competition. On the run of play Rangers deserved another goal. But to City’s credit was the magnificent team work that went to prevent it. The teams ended the season with a fraction of a goal separating them —they were always as close as that.

Lower Grade Matches

Keys Cup.—Cashmere-Wander-ers 3, High School Old Boys 2; Western 5, Watersiders 1; New Brighton 2, City 0; Technical beat University by default. Second Division (competition and knock-out) .—-Hal-swell 5, High School Old Boys 1; Riccarton 5, Shamrock 3; Rangers 1, Shirley-Nomads 0; Burndale beat Lincoln College by default. Third Division. —Section A: University 5. Western 3: Rangers 4, Shirley-Nomads 0; City 2, Shamrock 1; Technical beat Ashburton by default. Section B: New Brighton 1. Riccarton 0: Cashmere-Wanderers 2, Western 1. Fourth Division.—Knock-out-Shirley-Nomads beat University by default; Western 2, Burndale 1; Technical 5, Lincoln College 1: City beat Riccarton by default. Fourth Grade.—Shamrock B 7. Cashmere-Wanderers 3; Hornby beat Shirley-Nomads by default; Western won by default. Fifth Grade.—Section 1 knockout: Technical beat Christchurch Boys’ High Schoo) by default. Competition: Brighton A 5, Shamrock A 1. Sixth Grade.—Section 1 knockout: City 4, Burnside High School 0. Competition: Brighton 3, Shirley-Nomads A 3; Western A 10, Technical A 0. Seventh Grade. —Section 1: Western A 10, Hornby 0: City 1. Shirley-Nomads 0. Section 2: Rangers B 6, Shamrock B 3. Section 3: Burndale 5, Riccarton 0. Eighth Grade.—Section 1: Technical A 2,. Shamrock A 1; City A 2, Hornby 0. Ninth Grade. —Section 1: Western A 5, Hornby 0: Rangers A 3, Technical 0. Section 2: Shamrock B 6, Halswell 1. Section 3: Burndale A 4, Rangers C 0. Tenth Grade.—Section 1: Shamrock A 3, City 0. Eleventh Grade.—Section 1: Rangers A 3, Technical 1; Shamrock A 1, Brighton A 1; City beat Halswell by default. Section 3. Rangers C 1, Burndale Twelfth Grade.—Section 1: Halswell A 2, City 0; Rangers 1, Western 0. Section 2: Rangers B 1, Burndale A 1.