CHATHAM CUP FINAL Suburbs Fritter Away Match-Winning Lead

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 9

CHATHAM CUP FINAL Suburbs Fritter Away Match-Winning Lead

(By Our Soccer Reporter)

It was not the outward signs when the final whistle went—the handshakes and back-slapping among players and officials — after the tensely-fought, l&)-minute, 1970 Gillette Chatham Cup final was drawn and forced to a replay that told the real story of the match at the Basin Reserve on Saturday.

Rather, it was the feelings that came to the fore in the privacy of the two club’s dressing rooms that revealed the real truth the great frustration of Western Suburbs, the huge relief of Blockhouse Bay.

There was not a doubt that the national league “woodenspoonist,” Western Suburbs, with seven minutes of ordinary time remaining, had the final won, the cup theirs, and a season of bitter failure gloriously redeemed. Instead, moments of disastrous defence by players who had been heroes until that stage presented Blockhouse Bay with two fortunate goals and neutralised all that Suburbs had done before. First Replay

So. the first final between two North Island clubs in the year of the competition’s first open draw under the first sponsorship of Gillette has as yet another first to come—the first time it has been replayed. Four times previously the final had gone to extra time but onlv once did it fall to bring a clear-cut result, when North Shore and Western (Christchurch) were level on goals and corners aften 120 minutes in 1952 and shared the trophy.

Under this year’s new ruling for the final, corners did not count, and it was agaeed the match should be replayed if scores were still level after extra time. As a Wellington club was one of the two teams in this year’s final, at the Basin, the replay goes to the ground of the visiting club, and arrangements have been made for the match to be replayed at Newmarket Park next Saturday. LIFTED ITS PLAY

Western Suburbs rose to the occasion magnificently, its backs. K. Barton and R. Cattle, snuffing out the danger of Bay’s two talented wings, I. Ormond and C. Campbell, until extra time, its mid-field men probing dangerously and swiftly, and its striker, W. Huntly, scoring two well-taken goals, in the thirty-fourth and thirty-seventh minutes.

After the teams changed ends. Suburbs gaining the use of the strong northerly and Bay showing no real sign of coming to grips with the Wellington club’s uncompromising defenders, it seemed certain that the cup would return to the capital city for the first time since Miramar Rangers won it in 1966. Yet, always underlying Western’s defensive play was a vein of fool’s gold—a reliance on the big boot to get the team out of trouble instead of considerable build-up play. As Blockhouse began its final assault on tiring defenders. Suburbs became desperate to hold out and crucial errors were made.

Cattle and his goal-keeper, B. Nicol, tied each other in knots as they scrambled to keep a ball floating around the goalmouth out of the net. Nicol did not quite punch it clear, the wind swirling the ball back; Cattle did not quite kick it; the back and the goal-keeper then got in each other’s way, and the Bay mid-field player, J. Batty, took his chance to score. PENALTY EQUALISER

Even so, all was far from lost for Suburbs if it had regained control of fraying nerves, but the Wellington players failed to do so. All was now done hurriedly and desperately. And Barton handled a ball that was going outside the post, with two minutes remaining, and C. Shaw scored from the penalty, at his second attempt. Nicol blocked the first but had moved before the kick was taken.

Cramp and muscular injuries twice reduced Suburbs to 10 men in extra time—it had already made the two substitutions legally allowed—but the match was fought out at tremendous pace to the end.

The Suburbs captain, D. Wallace, put a header on top of the bar and T. Heptinstall shot an inch or two over. Nicol made a glorious save from Shaw. A. Jeffery robbed Shaw just as the centre-forward was lining up bis shot from 12 yards, and Campbell put a back header just wide of the post. Then the whistle went for the last time. This was an unlucky Western Suburbs, even if, in the later stages of ordinary time, it had

Boys’ Soccer.—The Franklin Inside forward, R. Mooney, scored a match-winning goal in extra time to enable bis side to defeat Hawke’s Bay, 2-1, in the final of the North Island under 14 soccer tournament at Gisborne

contributed to its misfortune. Twice in the second half, before Bay had scored, Suburbs went close to making it 3-0, and that would have been the end. MATCH SAVERS

The Suburbs strikers, B. Baker and Huntly, each chased through balls as J. Morris came out of his goal. Each got in a shot and both times Morris got in the wav. He was nearly blasted off his feet by the power of Baker's drive, temporarily lost the ball, but managed to hold himself upright and regain a hold.

These were match-saving efforts by Morris and two of the greatest individual moments of the match. Others were the goals scored by Huntly. a drive from the edge of the penalty area and a perfectlyplaced header, and two saves also made by Nicol, the most demanding being an acrobatic leap to Shaw’s first-half shot.

The ability of Barton and Cattle to reduce the Bay wings, Ormond and Campbell, to very

ordinary players was a big surprise, and forced the breakdown in the Auckland club's attack, A contributing factor was the lack of support given either Ormond or Campbell when they had the ball. M. Seed made some fine, penetrating passes, but he was far too slow following these up. and G. Root rarely broke quick enough to help his wings. Suburbs was well served by A. Jeffery, whose father and brother had previously won cup winners’ medala, but Jeffery made the mistake of relying too much on long clearances that nine times out of 10 were picked up by Bay defenders and returned immediately to harass the Suburbs defence, particularly in the final 20 minutes of ordinary time.

Both sides kept the ball tn the air far too much, on a day when a strong wind played havoc with it, and the least appetising portions of an otherwise stirring match were waiting for the ball to come down.