The Huntly Press
Wednesday 5th July 1978
Ngaruawahia Affco A v Hamilton Women
Ngaruawahia-Affco ladies `A’ team could only field 10 players for their crucial match against Hamilton at Centennial Park on Sunday. Top-placed Hamilton attacked strongly from the kick-off, putting the Ngaruawahia defence under considerable pressure, and it seemed that a goal must soon eventuate. In the 5th minute however, it was Ngaruawahia’s left-winger Janice Morris who collected the ball inside her own half and moved it past several defenders before hitting A long, hard shot that the goalkeeper was unable to hold. As it turned out, this was to be the only goal of the match, but the remaining 55 minutes contained chances for both sides, with sound defence by the two teams keeping the score down to a single goal.
The Ngaruawahia victory was a team effort but special credit must go to the back four and goalkeeper Liz Gorman.
Northern League
Ngaruawahia-Affco retained their 2nd position in the league when they defeated Taupo 4-3 in a close game at Taupo on Saturday.
Determined to pick up 2 points from the game, Ngaruawahia changed to a 4-2-4 formation, relying on the combination of John Brown and Jeff Tozer to provide striking power up front.
Taupo were the first to score after a cross from the right wing found a Taupo striker on the far post, leaving Sean Finn no chance to save the close range header.
The equalizer came 10 minutes later when Ngaruawahia were awarded a penalty which Jeff McLaughlan hit confidently into the net.
The second half saw a repitition of the first with Taupo again scoring and the equalizer coming from a breakaway by Jeff Tozer.
In mid-field for Ngaruawahia, George Paul and Ken Murray were always outnumbered and outplayed by the Taupo players, and after 15 minutes Murray was replaced by substitute Mike Liddle.
Although Liddle seemed to be constantly out of position, Ngaruawahia lifted their game and soon put in two more goals by Mike Heaphy and Jeff McLaughlan.
Although Taupo continued to play attacking soccer, their efforts were in vain, although they gained some consolation by pulling back one goal in the final seconds of the game to make the score Ngaruawahia 4 – Taupo 3.
Thistle Ladies Romp
Home Again
At the Huntly Domain last Sunday the Huntly Thistle ladies’ soccer team defeated Ngaruawahia Affco United No. 2, by six goals to one.
The Thistle girls’ dominated the game right from the kick off when only after two minutes, Marteen Hinton opened the scoring for Thistle.
Soon after Marty was to put Thistle further into the lead and make it 2-0 to Huntly.
The Huntly keeper, Rangi Troughear, with hardly any thing to do was complaining about the cold. Two minutes from halftime, Marty was to score her third goal to make the half time score 3-0 to Huntly.
At the start of the second half, the Thistle team went straight onto attack and Margaret Robinson made it 3-0 to Huntly when she scrambled the ball into goal on her hands, knees and nose to make it Thistle 4 United 0.
Right from the resulting kickoff, United went through the relaxed Huntly defence to score their only goal. Thistle 4, United 1.
Marty was the key to the Thistle dominance pouring through the middle Mtn with Marg and midfielder, Donna Hepburn in moves that carved huge gaps in the United defence.
The Huntly right wing Kay Simpson decided she was going to score her second goal for the year, so made it Thistle 5, United 1.
With 10 minutes left, Marty received a through ball from Donna and easily beat the United keeper to make the final score, Huntly Thistle 6, Ngaruawahia Affco United 1.
Next week on the Domain, the girls are playing the Ngaruawahia number one team on Sunday at 11 a.m.
Ngaruawahia Soccer Results
Northern League: Goals by Jeff McLaughlan, Jeff Tozer and Mike Heappey gave Ngaruawahia a 4-3 in over Taupo at Taupo. A late run by the home team threw a fright into the visitors.
1st division: Melville defeated United 3-0, a far cry from the 6-1 drubbing United received in the first round. Glen Solomon showed his skills by rounding their keeper twice but could not put it away.
3rd division: With little hinging on the result, both teams already through to the second round, United were defeated by Te Aroha 1-2 at Ngaruawahia.
Ladies A: A defeat for Hamilton 1-0 puts the ladies in wth a chance of the title if they can continue their run for three more games. Hamilton had taken United A 4-0 in their first meeting.
Ladies B: Huntly showed their skills in defeating Ngaruawahia 6-1.
High School girls: An own goal and Jennifer Clow gave Ngaruawahia High a 2-0 win over Fraser No. 1 team. This enabled the girls to remain undefeated to date. Player of the day was goalkeeper Lynnette Karin.
Divison 4B. Hamilton Boys High had too many guns and scored all the goals in defeating Ngaruawahia 4-1.
13th A grade: Ngaruawahia pulled away from a 1-1 halftime score line and won 3-1 against Peachgrove.
13th B grade: A reversal of the A scores with Peach-grove winning 3-1.
11th grade: Claudland Rovers gave us a 2-2 draw.
9th A grade: A friendly match aganst extra Ngaruawahia players gave the team a 1-0 win.
9th B grade: United and Hukanui fought out an exciting 2-2 draw.