DREAM COME TRUE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 160, 24 July 1937, Page 17

DREAM COME TRUE

A SOCCER VICTORY ! JUBILAINT AUSTRAUA DOWNFALL OF ENGLAND Saturday, July 10, 1937, will go down as the most famous date to Aus-S traiia's soccer history, says the Syd-: ney Referee under a caption of "A Soccer Dream Come True." A Test team of Australians defeated a representative side from Englahd at Sydney Cricket Ground, and the match will be discussed as long as the codc flourishe§ in this -country. There vvas. no fiuke about this football feat. A glaring sun didn't handicap the Ehgiishmen. There was no wind to ussist either side, and the pitch was practicaily perfect. For 90 minutes the biggest crowd that has witnessed a soccer match in Australia received thrills galore. Hard-boiled men who had been fol-. lowing other codes since boyhood, declared that they had seen real football for the first time. A former N.S.W. Rugby Union player told me, "Now I know Why millions fiock to see soccer overseas." And Australia won'on her merita. Tt's goihg to be very hard," said Roy Crowhurst, at the Referee offict the morning. "They are a great side; but no team will be trying harder than our boys." Fireworks! Well, as for triers; if one got as many every day oil a racecourse, there would be no bookmakers. Australia lost the toss, but that waj all she lost ali afternoon. Smith kicked off, and before a man next to me had time to raise his racing glasses, Austraiia had scored. The home team raced through as if they were on a training spin, and when Hughes hit the net at the Paddington end, the Englishmen must, have thought it wps just a dream. Joy, their captain, put his hands on his hips, as he watched Woolcock scoop the ball out of the net, and he was just as statuesque a few minutes later when Hughes repeated the feat. "Call in the stipes: the game's crook," remarked a racing man who backed the Englishmen. Be was flabbergasted. Next to him w&s a man who couldn't Ught a cigarette for excitement. The Englishmen returned to the centre looldng most dejected. Well, not all of tnem. Eastham was his usual perky self and when he was sailing through the centre a little later the best an Autsralian defender could do was to foul him. Being Ihe penalty king of the team, Eastham | was given the drive ott the 12 yard spot and goalie Morgan probably didn't see the ball. This success helped to restore England's equilibrium; but they were far from their normal selves. . One or two "do-or-die" pots at goal proved that and when Thornton and Mathews began lo finesse in front of the sticks one could sense something wrong. Twice the tourists should have bfeen on terms and, though Mathews is a clever ^pivojt, I would prefer a inore resolute man near the posts. • Thornton, too, should put some devil in his work and go for goal with his head down. I saw New-castle-United field a million dollar side. The forwards were artists, but they couldn't score. Very soon the directors pushed out a "chess player," and brought in a burly bloke named Appleyard. They won everything about the place after that. Manchester City had to introduce a simllar player named Gillespie. When the inside men — ^Livingstone and Turnbull — gave him the ball he had only one trick, and that was to shoot.