WANGANUI SOCCER

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 July 1947, Page 7

WANGANUI SOCCER

COMMENTS ON FORM IN MATCH WITH TARANAKI

PENDING GAME WITH MANAWATU (By “WAVERLEY”) In their first game of the season the Wanganui representative soccer team gave quite a sound display and thoroughly deserved their win against Taranaki last Saturday. Played as a curtain-raiser to the South Africans and New Zealand Test at Athletic Park, Wellington, Wanganui, by winning, retain the Lawrence Cup. Later in the season Manawatu will travel to Wanganui to play for the Cup and the local side should be capable of retaining the trophy. GOOD TARANAKI MOVES Ta-anaki staged some splendid attacking moves and repeatedly took play to the Wanganui penalty area, hut the forwards had no finish near gcel. As a result the Wanganui goalkeeper was never in any great danger. Outstanding player for Taranaki was Steele at right back, who gave a great display and saved his side on numerous occasions. His tackling was first class and his head work on defence of a high standard. SAFE GOAL KEEPER Stewart, in goal for Wanganui, had not a great deal to do but was safe and workmanlike with the few shots he had to deal with. Full backs Springer and Hicks tackled well and had the measure of the opposing wingers. Both players, with Stewart in goal, should form the defence for the team to play Manawatu. PATCHY HALF LINE The half line was patchy only S. Nimmo playing up to standard. However, with a slight change in tactics the same half backs should be chosen again. Kendrick was inclined to get up with the play and as a result left a large mid-field gap -which would have proved dangerous had Taranaki had a centre-forward of Scott’s calibre. No doubt he profited by watching Springbok centre-half, Naish, who completely blotted out G. Smith the New Zealand centre-for-ward. The defence positions are as follow: Full backs play wide and mark the wingers, the wing halves mark the inside men leaving the centre half to block the middle and never be far away from the opposing centre-for-ward. If Kendrick will do this and leave the wing halves free to attack, the selector need look no further for a half back line against Manawatu. S. Nimmo turned in a good display, forced the play at every opportunity and went close to scoring on quite a lew occasions. THE FORM ARDS In the forward line Scott was outstanding and made the most of every chance that came his way. he distributed play well and finished off a good days work with three goals the one he headed in being particularly noteworthy. J Kidd, at inside left, never wasted the ball and, with* clever passes to the wing or centre, was always a menace to the Taranaki defence. He opened the scoring with a well taken right foot drive. A. Kidd went well at inside right and sent out some good passes to his wing man. Darby tried hard but had no success with his crosses. He was up against the best back of the game in Steele. Smith had some good runs, but he also failed to send over the kind of cross that produces goals. A bad feature of the game was the poor corner kicking and some practice is necessary in this very important phase of the game. No doubt the team to play Manavzatu will be announced later and the writer would like to sec Heath in at outside right. Heath knows the game and can be relied upon to send over good crosses to the centre. This need be the only change in the team which beat Taranaki. • POSITIONAL PLAY Local players who made the trip to Wellington must have been impressed with the positional play of the South Africans. They were quick to turn defence into attack and their wing half backs wore the mon who invariably set the team on attack. In the ma n the South Africans played the short passing game but the inside men often split the New Zealand defence with well-placed cross-field passe.®.

As previously stated Naish gave an object lesson in the third back game at centre-half. On the day the South Africans carried too many guns and deserved to win.