Wednesday, August 11th 1976
Ngaruawahia Pips Claudlands in Soccer
The top match in the Waikato first division soccer competition on Saturday was between Claudlands Rovers, league leaders, and Ngaruawahia United in third position. In their first encounter United were unlucky not to come away with more than one match point when a missed penalty left them with a 0-0 result.
Ngaruawahia are still in with a chance of ending up on top but their two outstanding games will be no pushover against Hamilton and Fraser.
United were slightly overawed by what seemed to be a stronger Rovers team than in the past, but after a few minutes, United settled down and found they could develop moves just as probing as their opposition’s. United’s Jeff McLaughlan made the only goal of the match when he took the ball to the keeper at an angle, slipped it beneath him and watched Charlie Gorman gently tap the ball unopposed in the net.
Shortly afterwards Rovers were awarded a penalty. Murray Liddle read the ball well and, at full stretch, pushed the ball away and regathered it to clear. The Rovers kicker had tried to place it 60cm inside the left upright along the ground.
The score remained at 1-0 to United at the final whistle.
Delta Drycleaners player of the day went to centre-back Sandy MacDonald, having his first game for five weeks and first run in the first team for 12 weeks.