Woolston unpolished

Press, 17 April 1978, Page 26

Woolston unpolished

By

DAVID LEGGAT

Several chances were -eated but none taken when Woolston W.M.C. drew, 0-0, with North Shore in a disappointing Rothmans Soccer League third-round match at Garrick Park yesterday. It was a match Woolston should have won, and won well. Shore, while it still retains a handful of players from its title-winning combination of last season, lacks a sound defence and its attacks were limited in imagination.

The cool south-west breeze and the slippery playing surface did not help the players but ball control, in general, was poor. One aspect of its play the Woolston coach (Mr Terry Mann) will have been reasonably: happy with was the defence. With Allan Boath playing behind the promising Cohn Chisholm it has a fairly solid look about it. while the goal-keeper. Neville Petrie, was particularly efficient. The first half was basically an exercise — and a rather futile one at that — in kick and chase. Neither side seemed capable of playing controlled, relaxed football. The diminutive Keith Francis again provided some spark to proceedings and it was his finelv-judged leftfoot pass to Robbie Larter which initiated Woolston’s first real scoring chance. Larter swung a good cross into the goal-mouth, where: it took a couple of deflec-j tions to nudge the ball into the path of Graham Dacome, who was faced with an awkward left-foot volley: from point blank ranee which he miscued com-.

pletely, the ball flying high and wide of the goal. A long clearance by Boath gave Larter a chance to show his speed and indeed he almost gave Woolston the lead, beating both a Shore defender and the goalkeeper, Dave Bacoroo. who was substituted at half-time, and nudging his header just wide of the right-hand upright. A tactic employed by both teams on several occasions during the match was the low cross played early and this manoeuvred by Kerry Hales near half-time resulted in the ball sliding across the face of the goal and narrowly. missing the upright after no-one had picked it up. [ Shore did produce the odd: good piece of play. One in the first half carried the ; length of the field, with the strongly-built midfielder, Duncan Cole, acting as the pivot and ended with Adrian Elrick’s fierce shot from the edge of the goal area being deflected wide. The Shore defence did have a brittle look about it, even with five players. Elrick acted as sweeper behind the back four but spent considerable time roving the field, popping up in odd places when required. Woolston, in particular, struggled to string passes together and seemed hesitant when determination was [needed.

Shore dominated a large portion of play in the second half but, on sheer statistics, Woolston should have scored at least twice and Shore once. Stan McGaffin’s poor ball control let him down when clear on the edge of the Shore penalty area and later

Stuart Chalmers, who replaced Larter, gave a good ball to Neil Francis down the middle of the field, Francis neatly flicked the ball into McGaffin’s path 30 metres from the goal. McGaffin ran on before trying to chip the bail over the head of the advancing Mel Clarke in the Shore goal but Clarke succeeded in parrying the ball clear.

The hard-working Duncan Ormond missed the best chance of the match, however. Cole beat Fred Simpson to the bail on the halfway line, pushed the ball forward and, after Brian McKeown had nudged the ball into space. Ormond, (with an open goal from 10 (metres, kicked it wide of the upright. Dacombe almost redeemed himself for his earlier miss by sprinting through the middle of the Shore defence only to have Elrick desperately lunge the ball away for a corner when another metre would have given Dacombe the shot from 5 metres.

Long shots by lan Phillips and Hales late in the match signalled a change in tactics by Shore but Petrie proved equal to the task.

Teams. — Woolston: Neville Petrie; David Hendry, Allan Boath, Colin Chisholm; Fred Simpson; Hans Bisig, Keith Francis (Andy Goudswaard), Robbie Larter (Stuart Chalmers); Stan McGaffin, Neil Francis, Graham Dacombe. North Shore: Dave Bacoroo (Mel Clarke); Martin.Jennison, Allan Parkin, Neil Haines, Adrian EJrick, James Varney; Ron Ripley (lan Phillips), Duncan Ormond, Duncan Cole; Kerry Hales, Brian McKeown.