Canterbury A comes alive in second half

Press, 25 August 1980, Page 32

Canterbury A comes alive in second half

By

KEVIN TUTTY

The substitution of two 1 forwards at half-time was the tonic Canterbury A needed in its representative hockey match against Canterbury B at Porritt Park yesterday. Canterbury A was ahead, 1-0, at half-time and had not played convincingly, but at the interval, Balvant Bhana and George Camoutsos were brought on to the A team’s right-flank and from the start of the sectnd-half the team’s attack started to function fluently, and Canterbury A finally won, 6-0. Whilfe Camoutsos and Bhana were a more effective attack on the right than the pairing of Steve Ambler and

Warwick Shillito, it was certainly not the latter two who: were responsible for their side’s lack of first-half progress. The trapping of several of their team-mates in the first-half' was substandard.

The poor trapping, allied with slack passing enabled the B team to stay in the game. In fact it forced four penalty-comers to. the A team’s six, but in the secondhalf it failed to get any while the A side received seven. Camoutsos and Bhana gradually wore down the B defence in the second-half, and in the final quarter they initiated some splendid attacks. One started inside the

A’s 25m area when Camoutsos received a pass on the right-wing.-It ended with a cross from the left-wing, Chris Maister, into the B team’s circle. Barry Maister, playing his 150th. game for Canterbury scored two excellent goals.

The first was made by Carnoutsos who weaved past three defenders and his cross found Maister on the goalpost. He trapped the ball dead and flicked it into a narrow gap between the B

goal-keeper, Gary Copsey, and the goal-post. The second goal was similar. Except Jeff Gibson, the right-half made the cross and Maister deflected the ball in. It was a small tribute to its defence that the first

three goals, conceded by the B team were all penalties. The first was by Ross Ambler after Barry Maister had stopped a comer. The second was scored by Mark-Burtt who picked up a penaltycomer rebound, and Bhana

scored the third from a penaltystroke after Gary Copsey. had unfortunately got the ball caught between his pads at a penalty-comer. Selwyn Maister scored the other goal when he continued a dribble that started at the 25m line, and left a trail of beaten players in his wake. It made , amends for some of the passing and trapping errors that Maister, usually a consistent centre-half, made in the first-half. To be fair these aspects of his play did improve after the interval.

In the first-half and the early part of the second, the B team’s left-half, Chris Tye

and left-back, lan Steel, played - steadily under considerable pressure, but eventually the strength of attack forced them into errors.

Although it tried desperately the B team did not combine sufficiently well on attack to consistently pressure the A defence. lan Hill, Ross Thompson, Geoff Deakins and. lan Riach attempted to play constructively but the finely tuned combination that was visible among the A forwards was missing from the B team. Scorers were: Ross Ambler (28min), Mark Burtt (44 min), Bhana (53min), Barry Maister (57 and 68min), Selwyn Maister (63min).