Eastern Suburbs crush an indecisive Woolston

Press, 31 July 1978, Page 3

Eastern Suburbs crush an indecisive Woolston

By

DAVID LEGGAT

Eastern Suburbs were richly rewarded by their confident, assertive approach when they beat Woolston W.M.C. 4-0 in a Rothmans Soccer League match at Queen Elizabeth II Park yesterday. The match was a classic example of an assured, positive team overpowering a nervous, indecisive opponent. Woolston did not play well. Defensive errors cost it two goals and it missed a couple of excellent scoring opportunities in addition to missing a penalty. Had Suburbs taken all its dhances the score could have been doubled. It began well and was especially dangerous when breaking quickly from defence. Gary Jenkins scored first for Suburbs, taking a long range shot from the left which eluded both the goal-

> keeper, Neville Petrie, and ■ Allan Boath’s lunging dive. i Keith Francis was pushed i forward to the front-line by ; the Woolston coach (Mr ; Terry Mann) to strengthen : the attack and he did fairly well. His brother, Neil, was : Woolston’s best forward. His pace was too much for the i Suburbs left back, Tom ■ Bell, but he did not receive enough support at crucial : times. For the first 40 minutes ; Woolston did enough to sugi gest that it was not out of the game. s But two goals scored < against it in two minutes [ visibly jolted the team for the remainder of the first ’ half. After 41 minutes, Paul Johnstone scored after he bustled Boath off the ball \ and nudged it past Petrie. ' Almost immediately Alf - Stamp, always a problem for • the Woolston defence,

flicked a low left-wing cross past the defence into the comer of the net. Woolston began the second half in determined fashion but its passes went astray. There were not many signs of efficient team-work and the Suburbs players must have realised that Woolston’s challenge had faded dismally. Instead of resting on their deservedly won laurels, they continued to press forward and scored a final goal one minute from the end.

It was a muddled showing by Woolston and although it was not the worst performance this season it did, at times, come close. Stuart Chalmers and Jorn Flyvbjerc worked hard in the midfield and Steve Smith and Colin Chisholm gave competent displays in defence.

Cashmere-Wanderers beat Dunedin City in the Southern League — page 20.