National soccer regained

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33676, 28 October 1974, Page 24

National soccer regained

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN. After one season in the soccer wilderness, Dunedin is back in the Rothmans National League. Caversham clinched a place yesterday by beating Eden, 2-1, and taking an unassailable lead in the four-team play-off series, three points ahead of Wellington-Diamond United, whose place it will take in the league next season, with only one round to play. The closeness of yesterday’s result belied Caversham’s general superiority. Eden’s goal by C. Shaw came in the last minute of injury time, the Dunedin team’s defence easing up in expectation of the final whistle. A. Wright, Caversham’s player-coach, and the man behind the club’s revival after relegation from the national league in 1973, opened the scoring in the thirty-eighth minute, after the goalkeeper, J. Higgs, bad blocked his first shot.

The goal of the game came in the sixty-eighth minute. The striker, G. Craig, burst through the middle, beat a defender, and sent a sizzling 25-metre shot into the top corner of the net. On Saturday, W.D.U. and Porirua United drew, 0-0, in Wellington. The table is:—

Hockev.—The touring All-Star Asian hockey team won its third successive match against an Indian team by two goals to one, in New Delhi.

P W D Goals L F A Pts Cav’sham 5 4 0 1 8 3 8 W.D.U. 5 2 1 2 7 5 5 Porirua 5 1 2 2 5 7 4 Eden 5 1 1 3 8 13 3