SOCCER

Evening Star, Issue 23684, 18 September 1940, Page 4

SOCCER

PROLONGED SEASON A MISTAKE INTEREST AT LOW LEVEL [By Fuisr Ti.meii.] On Saturday tlie Fletcher Cup competition will close. There remains the Chinese Cup match to be decided. Going on the attendances at the matches at Logan Park, and omitting the representative fixtures, the average would probably not exceed 30. It has been the practice of the Otago Football Association to prolong the season until the end of September. This mainly has been due to provision for wet weather and representative matches. This year, with interest flagging to a marked extent, it would be wise of the association to finish the season earlier than usual. Certainly the gate figures cannot bo much incentive to prolong the life of a game from which much of the interest will have departed with Saturday’s result. It is timely at this juncture to point out the inadvisabiilty of holding home and away matches if Soccer is to be made an attraction to spectators. The best games definitely should go to Logan Park, irrespective of this policy of a game at home and a game away. It has driven spectators away from the main ground, with consequent lack and loss of revenue for the parent body, which needs money to carry on. It is significant that the supporters at open grounds have been more conspicuous by their strength than at the Logan Park enclosure. Has the position of the park anything to do with this? It is a question the parent body would be well advised to investigate.

Paid Coach Suggested. Exception has been taken by a Wellington correspondent to the expression in this column of “ the lax manner in which the game (the' Chatham Cup final) was controlled.” Referee Jack Graham has surely not been guilty of this charge. He alleges that Mosgiel was not fit, and it was obvious that after 17 minutes the trophy would not leave the capital. “ What has gone wrong with the South Island?” he asks. “ You appear to be three, possibly five, years behind the northern standard. Is the absence of an official coach responsible?” He points out that both Auckland and Wellington have one. South Island football, he suggests, Is more in need of overhaul than in the north. He does not advocate a coach, but suggests that his presence accentuates training activities, with additional team work as a profit. These statements cover a lot of ground, but the paid official coach suggestion is impracticable in Otago for one very good reason—lack of finance. Notes. It is a pity that Seacliff cannot weld ( its forwards and halves into as formidable a combination as the final triangle. If it could, it would be the equal of any team in the competition, including Mosgiel. It needed only a determined, straight-shooting forward to turn the scales the other way in this game, and that is exactly what Seacliff has not. Much well-intentioned play by Fyfe and Ives went far astray because they roamed too much and threw the others of the vanguard into confusion. Bustlers are valuable only when they bustle the other side, not their own. But Seacliff did well to hold Mosgiel to the modest tally recorded, especially since one of the goals was not deserving of the result. J. Skinner achieves some remarkable performances with the ball from nearly impossible angles. The left-foot shotclose in, it is true—from an extremely difficult angle, that gave him his second goal of the day, singles him out from any other shootist in Otago. In this sheer unexpectedness lies his chief scoring danger to the v opposition. , He differs from other forwards in the province for just that reason —there is too much stereotyped working in to goal, with consequent sameness of treatment by the defence. A little novelty about the goal area play would brighten Otago Soccer considerably. Is there a “ hoodoo ’ over RoslynWakari that it cannot defeat High School Old Boys? The former team apparently works under the handicap of defeat when it meets this side, although on actual performance it is the stronger eleven. But for some reason it cannot beat Old Boys. This has led to a great deal of friendly rivalry between the two, and was responsible for a fast, exciting game last week. L. Smith has not looked back since giving an excellent display against Canterbury, and he played a major part in the win, although occupying the centreforward berth for the nonce S. Dun-

can was back in the outside right position, and made a good fist of it. Particularly in the early stages, M'Narey and Nelson proved a tower of strength to Old fioys. It was their halves that were weak. It was the same with Ros-lyn-Wakari, and Wilson was not accurate when accuracy was most needed. Many of his passes went to the wrong place. The backs worked hard, and acquitted themselves creditably. M‘Callion and Welham were the pick ot the attackers. Northern managed to recover from its period of apathy to rouse itself sufficiently to overrun the weak Technical eleven in the final stages, after having had early command of the game. Technical’s rally all but prevailed. It seems as though'all teams have fallen victim to the apathy bug—Mosgiel has it, too. Some of the games are getting back to the first-of-season type. Among the players in this game Chapman (Technical), in the centre-forward position, was outstanding, making his play effective and decisive. Gordon, Reynolds, M'Lean, and MacFarlane showed up for Northern, while Henderson acquitted himself creditably on defence for the opposition. A draw was a fair indication of the respective merits of Maori Hill and Mornington. Neither side is very strong at the moment, and, in fact, the latter did worse than on the former meeting of these teams, when it won 3-0. It was a solid type of game, but rarely rising to spectacular heights, the success of the scheme. The underlying object of this scheme is to make