All Whites face testing final match

Press, 14 November 1984, Page 64

All Whites face testing final match

NZPA staff correspondent

Nottingham

The New Zealand soccer team takes the field in Nottingham this morning (N.Z.T.) fired up to perform to its maximum against a powerful England B side.

The coach, Allan Jones, will wait for last minute reports on players’ fitness before naming his team, but has already discounted goalkeeper, Clint Gosling, and striker, Steve Wooddin, because of injury. The match is the last the All Whites will play in Britain before returning home and will, without doubt, be the toughest. The England B side contains, as the manager, Howard Wilkinson, told NZPA, the best players in England not in the senior team. And in a country full of top class professional players, that means England’s second eleven is by no means second rate.

Alvin Martin, Luther Blissett and Graham Roberts have played for England while Steve Hodge, Gary Lineker and the keeper, Chris Woods, have been in England squads. Mr Jones summed up the difference between the two sides when he said the England B players had a market value of around SNZI2 million. “You could have any of our players for nothing,” he noted. Neither Mr Jones nor Mr Wilkinson would be drawn on match predictions, with Wilkinson saying he knew how dangerous it was to think 7 a'game would be easy because it looked that way on paper. Mr Jones said that since arriving in Britain for the six match tour, his team had learned to cope in the professional environment. “They have come through quite well, in fact better than I expected. How well

they will cope in the final analysis I don’t know — it’s on the day, like every game — but at least they know what they are up against.” The New Zealanders trained yesterday and turned on a performance that impressed Jones. "There is a desire beyond anything I’ve seen to compete,” he said. “They looked sharper than they have ever looked on tour. There is a certain degree of anxiety in the squad because they haven’t got a clue who’s playing and there’s been a desperate fight for places, which is probably the healthiest thing that could have come from this tour.”

The players in doubt through minor injuries are Steve Sumner, Keith Garland, Malcolm Dunford and Martin Felton. If all are declared fit, and with Richard Wilson assured of the goalkeeper’s spot and Colin Walker and Kevin Birch unrivalled up front, there' will be fierce competition for a place in the midfield and back four. Those areas will be critical for New Zealand’s chances of holding its own against England B. In the last two games against Leicester and Portsmouth, seemingly minor errors in. the back third of the field gave the opposition the goals they needed to win. Mr Jones said that in the five days following the 3-2 loss to Portsmouth “we have dene as much as we can do” to eliminate the errors.

“I’m sending in a side as best prepared as it possibly

can be under the circumstances,” he said. . Preparation will be the one area where the New Zealanders will have an advantage over their more favoured rivals.

The England B players, although talented in their own right, have not played together as a team before. “We have had a fantastic preparation period,” Mr Wilkinson, with tongue in cheek, said yesterday afternoon. “We have been together all of 28 hours.” In spite of the players’ unfamiliarity with each other, it would be unrealistic to expect full-time professionals bordering on the best England has to offer to be anything but superior to amateurs from New Zealand.

Although a win or a draw for the All Whites is not impossible, a loss is far more probable.

Teams:— New Zealand: Richard Wilson, Keith Garland, Martin Felton, Malcolm Dunford, Sean Byrne, Ricki Herbert, John Leijh, Allan Boath, Steve Sumner, Billy Harris, Peter Simonsen, Grant Turner, Billy McClure, Keith Mackay, Kevin Birch, Colin Walker. England B (unofficial): Chris Woods, Gary Stevens, Steve McCall, Alvin Martin, Graham Roberts, Derek Mountfield, Steve McMahon, Gary Mabutt, Luther Blissett, Peter Davenport, Steve Hodge. Subs: Steve Sutton, Nigel Callaghan, Terry Gibson, Paul Goddard, Gary Lineker. The match starts at 8.30 a.m.