Canty hockey too strong for Otago

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 28

Canty hockey too strong for Otago

By

KEVIN TUTTY

Canterbury comfortably beat Otago," 3-0, in a representative hockey match at Porritt Park yesterday but could draw little satisfaction from its win. Canterbury tried a new combination in the first half which was not conducive to scoring goals and for 15min of the second half it was a player short after Chris Maister was ordered from the field. Canterbury was far from impressive. It made trapping errors that one would not expect and will have to lift its play considerably if it is to beat Auckland in the Challenge Shield section of the national tournament at Masterton later this month. Some of the criticism for Canterbury’s poor performance could be levelled at the ground, which caused many bad bounces. But Otago was able to counter this problem reasonably well and had less mis-traps than the home side.

Many of the spectators were puzzled by the combination employed by Canterbury in the first half: it was a virtual 4-4-2 formation with no right wing. The Canterbury halves marked their men very closely. Selwyn Maister, who, as centre-half, is usually closely marked, clung to the Otago centre-forward in the first half and Bhikhu Bhana, who was an extra right-half, followed the in-side-left wherever he ventured. In the second half Canterbury reverted to the orthodox 5-3-2 formation but it did not improve its attacking ability, mainly because the trapping of the Canterbury forwards was tentative. Canterbury’s first goal came after 16min from a penalty-stroke by Selwyn Maister. Five minutes earlier he had struck a goal-post with a reflex flick from the top of the circle. It was not until smin into the second half that Canterbury scored its second goal, again a Selwyn Maister pen-alty-stroke. ' For the remainder of the second half Canterbury tried unsuccessfully to overcome its trapping errors. Mid-way through the half Chris Maister was suspended permanently after an altercation with Mr S. Crotty, one of the umpires. He was given a green card (a warning) after an incident with an Otago player. After exchanging words with the referee he was given a yellow card (a temporary suspension), and after a further

altercation was given a red -card (a permanent suspension).

Of the Canterbury forwards Mark Burtt was the most effective. He worked tremendously hard backtackling and linking and his bold dribbling often put the Otago defence on the back foot.

John Christensen, Barry Maister, and George Carnoutsos, the right-wing in the second half, all had trapping difficulties. The halves did not have the same problems with trapping but their passing was ponderous and several times players were caught in possession while trying to decide where to pass. Marty Fitzsimons, the Canterbury goal-keeper in the first-half, and Rodger McHarg, the goal-keeper in the second-half, each had to make some hard saves. Gerard Guillen, Malcolm Ramsey, and Ross Louden all worked hard in the Otago forward line but it was not the combination to crack the Canterbury defence.

In defence the full-backs, lan Porteous and Gary Marshall, a member of the Canterbury team last year, were particularly sound. Ross McCormack, the Otago centre-half, tried to exert some control in mid-field but was over-shadowed by the Canterbury inside-forwards and Selwyn Maister, his counterpart. The final Canterbury goal came after 67min when Barry Maister scored from a penalty-corner. Earlier he had dropped the hand-stop after several had proved fruitless because of bad bounces.