Wednesday, March 10th, 1976
Ngaruawahia Play Huntly in Pre-season
In past years Ngaruawahia have found their matches against Huntly Thistle reasonably easy-going and, this year, welcomed the ‘come alive’ team of Huntly, who had routed the Northern League 4th Division to win promotion to the third this year.
In 1975 Ngaruawahia spent their first year in the Waikato 1st Division with some success against established 1st Division teams and is building a team that is developing a better understanding of each other and their capabilities.
Ngaruawahia met Huntly last Thursday evening in Huntly in a pre-season friendly game, and had no illusions about another win. All Ngaruawahia players were given a game and their performances watched closely. Huntly just managed to creep into the double figures with fine driven goals, with Ngaruawahia gaining a double.
The early combination of players on the field for United showed some promise and held Huntly 1-1 for much of the half, but the changes in players and the contrast in fitness between them and Huntly showed out, and Huntly drove ahead.
Huntly suckered Ngaruawahia’s defence continually by drawing them to a man away from goal and then crossing to an unmarked forward who had a clear shot. At one stage the United keeper found he had to change into sand-shoes, and sat down in the goal to do this while Snapes was presented with the easiest of goals.
Ngaruawahia found the practice run very valuable in their build-up for the 1976 season, and wishes to thank Huntly for the invitation to play them.