Thistle Leads In Cup Competition

Southland Times, Issue 23819, 17 May 1939, Page 11

Thistle Leads In Cup Competition

By INSIDE RIGHT

By its convincing defeat of Mataura on Saturday Thistle maintained its unbeaten record in the McDonald Cup Competition and showed that its supporters have every reason for confidence for its success in the second round of games in the competition. It was expected that Mataura would provide Thistle with stronger opposition than it did, but the country team failed to reproduce its form of last season. Another surprise was caused by Old Boys being well beaten by Central. From the Old Boys team form the previous Saturday, a closer game was expected. Thistle showed much improved form in its match against Mataura, beating the country team by the good margin of five goals to two. The Mataura team lacked the dash it showed last season and its defence was not so resolute. Although the game was fairly fast and provided some bright football, the shooting of both sets of forwards was disappointing. Many good opportunities of scoring were’ lost because of wild kicking or over-confidence. G. Sutherland, one of the smartest forwards seen in action in Southland for some years, has gone to live in Wellington. His departure means a big loss to the game in Southland and will be felt particularly by the Thistle Club, of which he was a foundation member. Sutherland gave great thrust to the Thistle forward line and his cleverness won more than one game for his team. GOOD COMBINATION Without Sutherland the Thistle forwards seem to lack the dash they showed a season-ago, but their combination is still superior to that of most teams in the competition. On Saturday, the Thistle forwards, in contrast to last season, were clearly superior to those of Mataura and much of the play was in front of the Mataura goal. The play of the Old Boys team is not consistent. Two weeks ago Old Boys went very close to beating Thistle, which has now established itself as the strongest team in the competition, but on Saturday it was decisively beaten by Central. The Old Boys players again showed that they have an abundance of speed, but they frequently failed to keep their positions and, as a result, combination was lacking. With more experience, Old Boys should develop into one of the best teams in the competition, for it has youth in its favour and its members play with great dash. In the early stages of the game, Old Boys had command but could not break through the stout defence of CentraL Towards the end of the first half, however, the superior combination of the Central players told its tale and Old Boys was two goals down at half-time. For Central, Robinson and Gorrie played extremely well, the former scoring two fine goals. McKeever, a junior player in the early stages of last season, also gave a good performance, which included the scoring of a neat goal. Dawson was again prominent in the Old Boys forward line and scored his team’s only goal of the match. Strong and well-built, Dawson has the makings of a first-class forward. He leads most of the attacking movements of the Old Boys forwards and is always a potential danger to the opposing defence line. Bell, a speedy and elusive "player who possesses fine ball control, is anothet good scoring man for Old Boys, but he did not show out on Saturday.