Association Football

Evening Star, Issue 23681, 14 September 1940, Page 7 (Supplement)

Association Football

■* By First Timer.

OTAGO LACKED A LEADER BUT WAS NOT DISGRACED IN DEFEAT Otago suffered its second defeat this year at the hands of Canterbury in the Jones Cup matches. The second display was much more satisfactory than the other, since the final scores left only a one-goal margin, as against nine in the initial meet. One thing stands out very clearly, however. It is much too much to expect 11 men from varying elevens throughout the Fletcher Cup competition to perform as a team with their association dating from the moment they step on to the field. True, Jones Cup matches are more or less friendly affairs, but with the rivalry between the provinces strong, it is enough to warrant a mid-week practice or two to give the members a chance to function as a team. It would not bo beyond the realms of possibility to get the Otago eleven and another fairly strong side together to stage a match with this end in view. If this is impracticable the team members should at least be given some physical jerks to induce fitness. • In the game last Saturday the Otago team rather exceeded expectation, and did well to hold Canterbury to so narrow a margin. At times it seemed as though Otago would carry off the honours, but the Canterbury forwards saved the day, assisted strongly by tho halves and A. Sutherland in particular. It is easy to be wise after the event, but, well as he played, Johnstone was at a marked disadvantage at centre half through introducing into his play rather too much full-back tactics. This is an example of playing a man straight from one position into another, and an unaccustomed one. It is too much to ask of him, unless he has had previous experience of the position. Johnstone rose to the occasion splendidly, and his eagerness for work was a real pleasure to Otago supporters, but, unfortunately, he did not have the experience necessary for sending the Otago forwards—the strongest line—away on attack to the best advantage. On 'defence, as was only natural, he shone. It was through lack of familiarity with the position that he failed to hold the team together, which caused tho wing halves to cover a lot more than they should have and disrupted the combination of the Otago team to some extent.

He was not alone in this tendency, for Ruddiman, at left full-baek, although he did a lot of hard work, must have caused Hope some anxious moments. Ruddiman is an excellent assistant to a steady back who knows tactics, but on this occasion he seemed to unsettle Hope for a while through his energetic, forceful tackling all round the goal area, that threw his fellow back into confusion. Hope was much safer when he had become accustomed to Ruddiman’s tactics but it was only in the second spell that the backs were displaying their best understanding and both were clearing well with long passes to the forwards. Hope justified his inclusion in the eleven through calm, clean kicking in the face of strong Canterbury forward attacks. Stenhouse and M'Narey had a hard row to hoe in the halves. They had both to stop the elusive Canterbury forwards and cover up considerably more than usual. The result was that neither showed up as much as usual. In tho second spell a lot of their passes went astray and mainly to the feet of tho opposing halves. Probably this was duo to tiredness from overwork.

L. Smith was outstanding on the right, placing his crosses well after nice runs up the line. On tho day he was equal to anything that Nicholson had

displayed, and his crosses were more surely directed. Rogers, though suffering from his inadequate height and weight in comparison with the defenders, combined well with both Smith and Skinner. The latter, watched very carefully throughout, was enterprising, but was not kicking as accurately as usual. His missing the goal completely with a penalty kick was rather a surprise, but on tho whole he did all that could be expected of him, hampered as he was by a strong defence. Davidson was shooting much more accurately than usual, and positioned himself well, but still was inaccurate at times. Steven,' on the left, was not up to his usual form and tired badly in the second spell. Ho failed to swing his crosses over, as in previous games, and dqllied too long with them, allowing the defence to get set, while on other occasions he was robbed of possession. Nixon gave a creditable display between tho sticks, and saved well when occasion demanded. Once, when the Otago backs were beaten by criss-cross passing among the Canterbury forwards, he showed cleverness in anticipation in rushing out to take a shot mid-way to the goal from the shootist: had he waited in, his chances were fewer. He bandied more cleanly and safely than his vis-a-vis. Four of the shots that eluded him were extremely hard ones to stop, and it is probable that few goalies would have picked up any of them. The last was deflected and impossible to stop. Positional play, allied to poor passing at one stage, were the reasons for the Otago downfall, but beaten, the team was by no means disgraced. It gave a number of old-timers from both provinces a good display, .and there were patches of really exceptional manoeuvring.

Good although the Otago forwards were, the Canterbury team possessed more understanding, and one neat feature of its display was tho interchanging of positions indulged in at times. 11. Smith wandered a lot, but this did not affect the effectiveness of the vanguard, the gaps being filled as much as he swung into another position. One surprise sprung on Otago defenders was the straddling of the ball and letting it run through to the next player in line, giving him a chance to shoot whilst more or less out of range of defenders’ attentions. It gave Canterbury an unexpected goal by its very unexpectedness.

A. Sutherland was a tower of strength, and was outstanding for generalship, playing a large part in the win. His safety allowed the wing halves a great deal of freedom, and they assisted the forwards well, backing up strongly. His reliability permitted them to take risks denied the Otago men. Cawtheray and Mitchell worked well together, the latter being an effective stopper to the clever right wing work of Otago. He ivas not afraid to get. right into the man with the ball, and so minimise his chances of passing accurately.

One unfortunate feature of the match was that there were quite a few casualties in this game among the Canterbury ranks. It was rather surprising, for the game, though hard and fast, at no stage could be described as rough. It was fast, and an excellent game to celebrate the jubilee year of both provinces. Otago, it is pleasing to note, still has the honour of a game in hand m tho Jones Cup matches to date. However, Canterbury is to be congratulated on its displays this season, and fully deserved its reward. LOCAL IMPRESSIONS. It seems extremely likely that Mosgiel will be fully seven points ahead at the termination, of the Fletcher Cup competition, for, with to-day’s games complete, there remains only ono more match for it, and one for RoslynWakari. It does not seem likely that it will be upset at this late stage of the competition.