NATIONAL SOCCER STARTS TODAY Auckland club coach expects title win

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32880, 1 April 1972, Page 38

NATIONAL SOCCER STARTS TODAY Auckland club coach expects title win

(By I

D. P. MANSBRIDGE)

Asked in which position he expected his club to finish the 1972 Rothmans National Soccer League, the Mount Wellington coach, Mr K. Armstrong, said: “At the top, where else?”

Whether Mount will ' fulfil Mr Armstrong’s : confident prediction maywell be shown this week* ; end in the first round of ' league matches.

The runner-up last year, Mount Wellington will open its 1972 campaign away to Gisborne City in one of three intriguing matches. The other two are the clash at English Park this afternoon between Christchurch United and Blockhouse Bay, and the meeting in Wellington of New Brighton and Wellington City. BEAT SUBURBS Mount Wellington has already made one big impact on the 1972 soccer scene by beating Eastern Suburbs, last national league winner, in the Auckland pre-season competition. All last season Mount stood in the shadow of Suburbs; now it has burst clear and given Mr Armstrong’s boast some sub-

stance. However, confidence, although essential, will not be enough to overcome Gisborne, especially on the City’s ground, Childers Road.

With nucleus of last year’s team, which finished an improving fifth, and some strengthening done in the attack, Gisborne might well chalk up the first surprise of the new season. The match between Christ-

church United and Blockhouse Bay, put back to a 3.15 p.m. kick-off because of the Auckland club’s delayed arrival time, should produce some of the tightest football of the five first-round games. With the score a win each and two draws between the clubs, this fifth meeting will also have a direct bearing on the outcome of the championship. Both are expected to be among the top four next September and neither can afford to lose this one, particularly if Mount Wellington picked up both points in Gisborne tomorrow and Eastern Suburbs gain an expected victory over Stop Out in Auckland today.

Brighton, the newcomer to national soccer, has a fine chance to start the season with a win, or at the least a draw, against Wellington City, which finished second from last in 1971, only .001 of a goal ahead of Western Suburbs, whose place Brighton took after the play-off series. The other first-round match is between the two teams who finished low in last year’s competition, but this year are playing under a new name—Auckland City (formerly Mount AlbertPonsonby before the amalgamation with Eden) and Caversham (the only survivor from the three clubs that set up Dunedin Suburbs).

Soccer. — The Sydney tocoer club, Apla-Leichhardt, baa accepted an offer from the Californian Soccer Federation to play six matches in California later thia year. ___________