T.T. United has comfortable win over Mount Wellington

Press, 29 August 1977, Page 21

T.T. United has comfortable win over Mount Wellington

Trans Tours United effectively I crippled Mt Wellington’s hopes ' of taking this year’s Rothmans < Soccer League championship ' when it steamrolled its way to a 4-0 win in Auckland on Sat- I urday. ; The Christchurch side could I have taken the match by eight goals. ] Scoring chances came thick 1 and fast, and it was only a lack ; of fortune, and a second-half lapse up front, which kept the i score down to four goals. ; From the outset, the Mount was a beaten side; without its i injured defender and skipper, ; John Houghton, the Auck- I landers' defence never looked ; capable of holding a goal-hungry : United. United's strikers — Mark I McNaughton. Frank McKay and ; Richard Mulligan — had a field I day. Its midfielders. Bill Amey I and Steve Sumner, sent a non- ’ stop barrage of penetrating i passes through the Mount ' defence, for their strikers to cash in on the available space. United’s front-runners, McKay i and McNaughton, continually '

found themselves in two-agatnst-1! two situations; several times i they left themselves with only j | the Mount goalkeeper, George 11 Yearbury, to beat By half-time, United could 1 have been ahead by five or six I goals. Instead the score at the i interval was a mere 3-6 It was the first time that the i Mount had turned around In a I Rothmans League match three : goals behind. United's first goal came up i after 18 minutes, when it won I a corner on the left. i Kees Dornenbal swung the place kick towards the far post, I and McKay, rising well, headed 11 the ball downwards and between 11 a mass of Mount defenders to score. i Ten minutes later, McNaugh- i ton found himself In the clear, : and pinged a shot just wide of the upright. But he almost made up for i the miss four minutes later, when he broke through the de- I fence and took the ball to i Yearbury. He pushed his pass wide of i Yearbury, and across the face of the goal, to present McKay with an open net. But somehow, I

Mount’s John Leljh got a foot to the ball and deflected the , pass past McKay, to prevent a ' certain goal. After 38 minutes, McNaugh- i ton again broke through, thia . time sending over a near-perfect I cross to Mulligan at the far past Yearbury . however, judged the i situation magnificently, and 1 blocked Mulligan's header with i a fine save. At this stage, with United ■ running the Mount ragged, It i seemed incredible that the i score was only 1-0. Amey corrected the position I In the fortieth minute, when i he scored the goal of the match: After a quick inter-passing i move in the Mount area, McKay I set Amey up for a clear shot from 20 metres. I Amey walloped the ball past Yearbury, and just inside the up right. After 43 minutes. McKay got the best chance of the match — I and missed it. A long through ball caught Mount off the hop, i and presented McKay with only . Yearbury to beat. Inexplicably, McKay fluffed i his shot, pushing It wide. i

Right on balftlm*. United put the result beyond doubt Mulligan roamed down the right and, beating the full back, Ror Armstrong, hi pu'lid hi» pa--> back for Doornenbal Turning and shoot mg at the same time. Doom.ub.i smacked the ball high Imo the Mount goal from the edge of th.- area After the first-half action, it was easy to expect United to double Its score After 50 min utes, when Mulligan scored with a neat header from a Me Kay cross, it looked even more possible But the rest of the half be came something of an anti climax, with Mount atrugglin, to make a game of it. The only incident of note in the remainder of the game came late in the piece, when a Mount striker, Kevin Weymouth, felled United's 1-aurie Blyth while challenging for a high ball Blyth left the field with blood streaming down his face ami a doctor — incidentally, also th. Mount Wellington club pre- > dent — put four stitches In the deep cut above Blyth's left eye