Huntly Press, Wednesday, April 21, 1971
Win one, Lose one!
United thoroughly deserved their win over Frankton Railways last Sunday, having gone down 5-3 in a previously friendly fixture. Commencing with only nine players, United held Railways until the others arrived. Malcolm Burt scored first by placing a ground shot beneath the keeper. Ten minutes later Railways equalled from a bad trap by a United back. The team was shuffled in the second spell and, working a much more successful 4-3-4 system, more than held their own against their 1st Division opponents.
Martin Bell worked well on the right wing and set up countless scoring opportunities, from one of which Neil Gorman scored. George Sunnex could have brought the score to 3-1 when he had the keeper well out of the picture and the goal open. He stopped to change the ball to his right foot and lost the opportunity. United deserved the win (2-1) and are looking forward to a successful 1971 season.
Waikato 2nd Division
Ngaruawahia United commenced their season in traditional form by going down to Matamata 4-0. United could not find themselves on the field and Matamata capitalized on this by scoring thrice in the first half and once in the second. Perhaps United might have scored if the referee had not cut the game short by about 20 minutes, offering no reason for doing so!
Matamata smothered the United attacks. Each time a United player gained the ball he found himself at the receiving end of 3 or 4 tackles. Matamata played aggressively and dominated the match as a team, while United were just a pack of individuals. Stewart Bell had a poor day in goal, with none of the others doing much better.
Team: Bell, C. Gorman, N. Gorman, Sunnex, Sydney, Turner, Berryman, Barr, White, Burt, Frankhauser, Docherty, Rose.
Senior Schoolboys
The seniors travelled to Hamilton to meet Te Awamutu in their first game. Te Awamutu could not contain the enthusiasm of the Ngaruawahia team, who knitted together well and had the Te Awamutu defence broken after the second goal. Ngaruawahia had a strong defence in Rex Nightingale, Emmett Connolly and Steven Mark and did not concede a single goal. Rex was relaxed and dealt with any stray balls efficiently. Emmett played with increasing confidence after his promotion from the junior team, and Steven Mark tackled faultlessly as always. Tony Janssen was the unheralded boot behind the two goals scored by Martin Bell. He fed the forwards well. Steven Barr controlled the middle of the field impeccably and drove a 25-yarder in so hard that the keeper could not hold it and let it spin through for a goal. John Forrest fitted in well, as did Duffull and McIntosh, distributing the ball intelligently. At right wing, Martin Bell worked excellently, earning his two goals. Chris Barakat, another promotion from the juniors, notched his first goal of the season, too. Alan Rose was always the hunter and gained 2 nicely engineered goals. Ngaruawahia slowed the match up to a more restful pace towards the end, but did not relax their grip to run out the winners by 6 goals to 0.
Junior Schoolboys
Otorohanga defeated Ngaruawahia at Otorohanga by two goals to nil on Saturday. Many of the boys found for the first time just how punishing soccer can be. Captain for the day was Roger Miles.
All was even for the first 20 minutes with neither team able to finish its attacks. Otorohanga’s first goal came from a curling chip that was carried by the wind into the corner – a lucky goal. Otorohanga had to wait until the second spell to add another, and this they snatched when a weak goal-kick was offered to them to pick up and slam past Robert Paul, the Ngaruawahia keeper.
Players to stand out for Ngaruawahia were Frankie Tui, Craig McPherson and Gary Paikea.