Lively Soccer

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 697, 24 June 1929, Page 6

Lively Soccer

CELTS AND Y.M. DRAW Trams, Ponies and Thistle Win ALTHOUGH the heavy grounds were all against accurate footwork there was a plentiful crop of goals in senior Soccer on Saturday, the result of the play leaving the positions of the leading clubs unchanged. Trams had an easy win over Belmont by 6 —2. and Thistle also secured a fourgoal margin over Onehunga. 4—o. Ponsonby beat Shore after a hard tussle by 2—(J, but the best match was an exciting draw of four goals between Y.M.C.A. and Celtic after the latter appeared to have the game well in hand.

Counter-attractions and threatening | weather reduced the attendance slightly at Blandford Park, but there was still a good crowd, which was rewarded by a clever display by Thistle against Onehunga, followed by a thrilling finish between Celtic and Y.M., when the Young Men made a wonderful recovery (after being two goals down) and came within an ace ol | winning. KAY’S QUARTET OF GOALS 1 The turf at headquarters was in sur- ! prisingly good condition, being wet but not holding, and play right through the afternoon was lively in the extreme, three of the four teams scoring four goals each. Deadly shooting by Kay, who landed all four goals, was responsible for Thistle defeating Onehunga by a much wider margin than the run of the play warranted, but the Manukau men were painfully weak in front of goal and fired away several scoring chances. Thistle played Rowat at fullback, and a younger brother of Cumming at left half, both acquitting themselves creditably. The Thistle front line was well fed by McCosh and Carter, and proved too elusive for the Onehunga backs, and in spite of Zuill’s sound display in goal he had no chance with Kay’s three good shots and a penalty kick. Cumming was also in good form on the right flank, and it was from his accurate centres that most of Thistle’s thrust came. Chalmers was again conspicuous as a lively mud-lark and covered a lot of ground scouting for the ball, but Bentley held the centre of the Thistle line well in check, and repeatedly sent his forwards away on fruitless raids. The Manukau men in the front line failed to reproduce the form which collected half-a-dozen goals from Y.M. the previous Saturday. Jones was responsible for some nice line runs and good centres, which were wasted, and Whimster showed flashes of last year’s dash, but the inside men had an off-day, and Gerrard in Thistle’s citadel was not greatly troubled. CELTIC STARTS WELL It was expected that the improving Celtic and Young Men would produce an even struggle for supremacy in the big game, and the spectators were not disappointed as both sides played themselves right out in a gruelling duel for the winning point. Both sides were s at full strength, and Celtic was the first to find its feet in the wet going, and a good left wing movement culminated in Simm sending across for Rimmer to net neatly. The same player doubled his tally soon afterward by cleverly collecting a rebound from a shot to the bar by Watts and slamming it past Hilliard. The early reverses stung Y.M. into action, and after a sustained siege on the Celts stronghold a shot by Bartley came back from the upright to Humphreys, who made no mistake. Celtic then took another turn, and Rimmer completed his hat-trick by hitting an accurate first-timer at a centre from Gavan, and half-time sounded with Young Men two down, a disputed goal being disallowed. A THRILLING RECOVERY

On the re-start Celtic still held the advantage in the exchanges, and the game seemed as good as settled in its favour when some germ spread among the Young Men had put new life into what appeared a jaded and beaten lot of plodders. Riddols started up a strong melee in front of the Celtic castle, and after McPhersen had fisted ono back to Malcolm, the half sent it flying back into the net. A few minutes later Chapman started up another stirring rally, and again the ball came out of the ruck to Malcolm, and he slammed in his second scoring point, making the game all square, with frenzied cheers from the Y.M. camp. A STIRRING FINISH

Then both sides roused themselves and went at it all out for the winning goal. Clanachan got away from the green-an-white defence, and sent across for Woods to carry on the good work and put the Young Men one up. With what had seemed a set victory threatening to become a rout, the Celts rallied strongly, and Gavan broke away on the right to slam right across to Simm, who ran in and beat Hilliard with a hot one. Both sides made it willing and kept the referee busy for a hard finish, when a great struggle ended with the game all square and points divided, both sides getting a great cheer for their plucky efforts.

There was little between the teams at the finish, as after Celtic holding the whip hand for the first portion, the Young Men’s recovery was a great effort, and they were a bit unlucky in having a goal disallowed just before half-time sounded. Just what happened was not clear from the Press box. but after Humphreys had rushed what appeared a good goal into the

net a prolunger appeal saw Mr. Campbell go to each linesman in turn for an opinion, at tho same time receiving quite a lot of unsolicited ones for the terraces. The referee then bounced the TT sn , sh °, ~ oal mouth and Celtic charged 1- clear. Other decisions were hate aS Y t 0 follow - and the Same would \ av f. been a good subject for the talkies” ut times.

The weakness of the Y.M. lav in its forward line, the finishing shots being y? r 7 h'-’or, and only the opportunism of Malcolm saved the situation. Chapman was in better form again, and was slogging trom start to finish. Mowat "as the best of the four fullbacks, his paee, sure kicking and robust tackling savin f the situation when , ■ i'PPerj surface and greasy hall caused his partner to fault at times.

Simm and Gavan were both wingers, who centred strongly an* a curately. and Runnier gave a finhL ending to some nice combined mov ments. Wrights style of blazing -,, ball to the wings was the right for the day. but ('.rant was more eS? ive with his quieter methods. Whowell and Harper put plenty ginger into their tackling and ances. and it was a good hard with no beg pardons in some oecaScpv bumping bouts. TRAMS FINISH STRONGLY Belmont battled irallantlv an , strongly against the full power o' tb transport boarders at Victoria Park and held its own with honours ea«v a ~H a goal each at half-time. With tl sun and breeze as an advantage Bel mont was the first to score, when Yoli Bach netted from a centre bv Stewar but Stretton soon equalised for and only erratic shooting with a muddv ball, with some smart saves bv Wyllfe kept Trams from securing the lead The Belmont boys stuck gamely to their

more experienced opponents in the second spell until a mistake by Kemo found his own net. and then Spencer Bell and Williams <2> piled cn the goals in quick succession until Trams held a five-goal lead. Belmont rallied as the transporters eased up. and after a hot attack Austen beat Battv with ? great shot, but Belmont had to* be content with a four goals’ margin be. tween them, which did not fairly indicate the balance of play. SHORE OUT OF LUCK

For the second Saturday in succession Shore had to be satisfied with a blank score sheet, going down to Ponies by two to nil after a ding-done go with no score on the board until closing time was drawing near. Th' luck of the game was with Ponies, as the Shore centre, Dow. was knocked out early in the game for a good spell, and wgs not himself on resuming. In spite of heavy rains the turf was in first-class order with no sign of mud. and the game was lively from start to finish. The defence on both sides held the upper hand throughout. In spite of playing a man short, Shore had slightly the better of the first spell, but Lyons was in a safe mood, and kept his goal intact, while Gerrard and Colebourne were a solid pair in Shore’s last line of defence. Lively give-and-take play in the second spell found the Ponies slightly the stronger in attack, but Shore missed some good scoring openings, and a pointless draw seemed a likely result until Haycock had the misfortune to put through hb own goal in trying to clear, and then Arch Morrison made it a safe thing for Ponsonby by beating Wise with a good shot. Shore made some desperate sorties, but the Ponies’ goal bore a charmed life and they collected full points after a willing finish. In the senior B division. PhilonH carried too much strength for Tama's: at the Dock, and had a comfortable win by five goals to nil. Corinthians accounted for Newmarket by three to nil. and Metropolitan and Rangers had a great battle, which ended in a pointless draw.