Good win for T.T.U.

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 20

Good win for T.T.U.

After a seemingly interminable delay. Trans Tours United scored the goals it has been promising for so long when it beat Hamilton. 4-2, in a Rothmans Soccer League match al English Park on Saturday. It fully deserved to win and three of its goals had a touch of class. Equally important in the final reckoning was the excellent containing job the United back four did with the dangerous international striker, Keith Nelson. Nelson had two scoring chances in the match. The first, after eight minutes, came when he turned sharply on the ball from a wide angle and his low shot was goalbound had Peter Moot not pulled off a good low score. However, if United had a justifiable reason for being worried about Nelson and. to a lesser degree, Alf Stamp, Hamilton should have been concerned with what Kevin Mulgrew might do to them. As it turned out, the little entertainer was the outstanding player on the field. He scored the third goal with a spectacular shot and set up the fourth goal as well. United began the match well

and found, early on, that the Hamilton marking from defensive set pieces was not what it should have been. Twice Glen Adam was left unmarked at freekicks and from one of these his header flew over the cross bar. United almost opened the scoring half way through the first half when lan Marshall, who had an eminently satisfying game, fed Mulgrew on the left and his low' cross found Mark McNaughton steaming in but lashing his volley over the bar. McNaughton will have been pleased with his performance as he had to pass a fitness test before taking his place in the team. United’s first goal could not have been better timed. Half a minute from the interval. Marshall sent over a fine left foot cross which lan Park glanced powerfully past Bowley. It took until the 70 minute for United to tighten the screws as it should have done at the start of the second half. Hamilton, somewhat against the run of play, managed to scramble back into the game fairly early in the second half. A long clearance by a Hamilton defender was pounced on by the lanky Stamp, always a problem until he left the field injured, who beat three defenders and

pulled the ball square for Nelson. hurtling through the middle, to blast the ball into the bottom corner of the goal from 18 metres. Kees Doornenbal went close to scoring on two occasions, one a header which just eluded the upright and the other a fierce right foot shot from 25 metres, which narrowly cleared the cross bar. United regained the lead when McNaughton squeezed the ball inside the upright from close range after the big Hamilton defender. Alex Young. had scrambled the ball off the line at the opposite post. Soon after Mulgrew beat two players in midfield and shot with I surprising force from 30 metres.! beating Bowley for a superb goal. Mulgrew took the centre stage yet again when he drew Bowley | off his line and pushed the ball i across the face of the goal for Park to place the ball into the' open goal. Keith Niederer scored the final. goal of the match when he head|ed a flick from the near post just under the cross-bar. Two Hamilton players were cautioned in an otherwise clean, hard-fought match. Young, his team's best defender, and Peter Henry, both in the second half.