Professional attitude evident in Uniteds soccer triumph

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33343, 29 September 1973, Page 4

Professional attitude evident in Uniteds soccer triumph

(By

D. P. MANSBRIDGE

The Christchurch United coach, Terry Conley. shocked, amused and delighted — depending upon the effect he had on individual tastes — with a story he told at the annual dinner of the club last Saturday.

Standing behind the visual sign of United's most successful season — the Rothmans National Soccer League Trophy —, he recounted to his audience of club officials, players and supporters, of a physics student who was asked in an examination to describe the method used to measure the height of a building with a barometer. The student answered that he would climb to the roof of the building, tie a ball of string to the barometer, lower it to the ground, and then measure the length of string needed to accomplish this simple exercise.

The examiner, suitably unimpressed by a nonscientific answer, failed the student, but later agreed to allow an independent arbitrator to re-examine him. The student was then given six minutes to win a reprieve, appeared to waste five of these in contemplation, explained that there were many ways in which he could answer the question, and then rapidly scratched out a reply that was acceptable to the examiner.

The arbitrator, however, was also interested to know the answers the student had rejected. They ranged from climbing the building by the stairs and using the barometer as a ruler on the side wall to employing an acceptable scientific formula. His final suggestion was to enter the basement, seek out the caretaker, and offer him the barometer in exchange for the height of the building. Conley then supplied his reason for telling this story: “It just goes to show.” he said, "that there are many more ways than one to

reach the result one wants to achieve.” And he was obviously satisfied that he had supplied his answer to United’s critics who have been forced to acknowledge the Christchurch club as the national league champion but condemned its playing tactics as being unworthy of a title-holder. Conley had prefixed his story with a frank appraisal of United’s approach to the 1973 season. He pinned the credit for the major success firstly to the dedication and hard work of the players in making themselves into “the fittest and most determined team in the country.” Turning then to the tactical side of the team’s

play, he admitted that United had not set out so much to win friends, but to win the title. “In the three previous seasons it was freely acknowledged that United produced the most creative and attractive football in the league; and each time we finished in third place. “This year we set out With the fixed intention of winning the championship and based our tactics on that single target. Perhaps all of our football did not suit the purists, but it was highly effective, week in and week out, and certainly accomplished our objective.” And that cannot be denied. United did not just win the title in 1973; it demolished the competition by finishing eight points ahead of the runner-up,

; Mount Wellington, and setting a record-winning margin that might never be improved. It was a victory for a i wholly professional attitude ' in which the means of getting to the top and staying i there were carefully ; weighed and found to jus- ’ tify the ends. United either shared the > lead or set the pace from I the opening game of the : season, when it beat Block.- ‘ house Bay, 2-0. It collected 10 points of a possible of i 12 from the three Auckland ‘ clubs, achieved a rare double against Gisborne I City, and had ample revenge on the three Wellington clubs for taking points from Christchurch 1 in the first round. All of this was achieved in spite of the loss at the start of the season of two internationals, V. Pollard and G. Davis, and of a third New Zealand representative, A. Marley, at a critical period midway through the season. In retrospect, there was little that was truly adventurous in United’s play but much that was spectacular, and that most certainly evident when the need for a goal was most vital, as when K. France turned the tables on Mount Wellington at English Park and New Brighton was pounded to defeat in the last 12 minutes on the same ground. And because this was largely a team success, disciplined and determined, individuals did not shine as much as in other seasons. Yet nothing could finally quell the talents of such as P. Dando, L. Blyth, France, . G. Griffiths, B. Hardman and F. Madrussan. For Brighton, on the other hand, it was a season of huge disappointment. More wins were gained than in the club’s first season of national league soccer, in 1972, but the end result was the same—ninth out of 10. It would be too simple just to say that Brighton was an unlucky side. It ;

was, but it was also an unfulfilled one in which luck alone was not the answer. The fundamental weakness was the club’s looseness in defence, amply illustrated in Brighton’s goals against record of 43—the worst in the league, including even that of Caversham, which finished eight points behind Brighton. There was, too, Brighton’s inability to take the chances that came its way; a disease that spread even to such a goal - hungry personality as K. Mulgrew before the season ended. In several games, Brighton produced a fluency that United did not attempt to match, but there was never the discipline or the solidity that marked United’s play from first to last which would have given Brighton the firm basis for its other talents to blossom. Until the final weeks of the season it had seemed that none of the Auckland clubs would finish in the top four, and that Gisborne City, Wellington - Diamond United and Wellington City might usurp them. In the end, Mount Wellington and Blockhouse surged through to take second and third places, separated

only by goal average, and Eastern Suburbs was only narrowly pushed out of fourth position by Gisborne on the last day of the season.

The early eclipse of the Auckland clubs provided the year’s biggest query and it cannot be answered simply by saying that their preponderance of World Cup players had become stale and tired before the season started.

In fact, Blockhouse and Suburbs had no more men in the World Cup squad than did United. Only Mount Wellington could reasonably make this excuse, and yet this team found the stamina to win the Chatham Cup and finish in a burst that took it up five places in six weeks.

Perhaps the answer to Auckland’s apparent failure was more simple; that the

northern clubs took too much for granted, found that the rest of the country had prepared themselves better, and once they found themselves struggling could not lift their play quickly enough to counter the others’ determination. Only when Gisborne, W.D.U. and Wellington City lost their rhythm under end - of - season pressure did the Aucklanders make their presence felt. By that time , of course, United was so far in front that second best was all the previous champions could seek. United had climbed to the top by its own methods and had no need for a barometer to gauge how high it had gone. And in 1974 .. . but that will be another story.