NUAFC 1968-2018

Hamilton scored a goal along with Nat
Reyes (2), Steve Williams and Jeff
Tozer. Tauranga scored from a penalty.
City can't stop
Ngaruawahia
Bay of Plenty Times, 6th Sept’ 1982
By Ian Turner
In the space of a few brief
second-half moments Tauranga City's
high hopes of thwarting Ngaruawahia's
promotion from the northern league third
division were shattered.
The soccer match at Centennial
Park on Saturday was an hour old; the
scores were tied at 1-1; but then it was
blue murder as the Affco killing chain
butchered City to a 1-5 defeat.
This was the Ngaruawahia
club's day of days — they billed it as 'the
big match'.
Onto their vast paddock (85
metres wide) stepped banner-bearing ball
-boys, hastily rehearsed cheerleaders, a
two-person mini haka, zambuk first aid,
and top official John Cameron. City were
meant to feel intimidated, but the
opposite was the case.
For nearly half an hour the
Tauranga lambs were anything but
slaughtered and could easily have been
ahead.
Doug Green powered a
blistering 30-metre shot from Peter Hills'
lay-back that would surely have gone
into goal from anything but the Waikato
square bar, but thudded to ground in play
and was cleared.
Green made many timely
interceptions at the City end, but this was
later in the game because for the timebeing
City were making the chances.
Geoff Bothwell met Larry
Seales' pinpoint free-kick with a header
that stretched Affco keeper Jim Barry
all the way down to the base of his righthand
upright.
The tension was showing in
Affco's frantic haste to close City down;
often three green shirts homing in to one
blue. Affco won a free-kick for
obstruction, it was touched to Nacho
Reyes who smacked it ricocheting
through the City wall past Kelvin Pearce
and into the net.
Chilean Reyes has that Latin
flair for the use of the outside of the foot
that is seen so little of in European-style
play, and it was particularly effective for
his in-swinging corners taken against the
breeze.
The goal fired Ngaruawahia's
starting gun and the race for more home
goals was on.
They closed out the mid­field
and City went right off the boil, making
some silly mistakes in passing and
control and being robbed at crucial
moments. But the green machine' was
kept at bay.
Larry Seales' covering runs
from the left were much appreciated by
1982
City's back three, whereas very little was
seen of Peter Hills, Bothwell and the trio
of youngsters.
So it was all on for the second
half.
City's error, rate spread to
epidemic level, exposing Brian Erith and
Pearce to some fearful pressure.
On the hour City at last
advanced far enough to strike at goal;
Digby Seales bicycle-kicked goal-wards,
Steve Williams had no choice but to
push it out with his hands, so Larry
Seales (top league and cup scorer for the
season with, a mere five) put away yet
another penalty for Tauranga.
Then came Affco's devastating
burst of scoring knife-thrusts. John
Cyples cracked in a daisy-cutter from
outside the City penalty area, Geoff
Tozer found the target from close in and
Williams headed in one of Reyes'
bending corners.
It was all over in four frenzied
minutes; but Affco had one more cut to
make, which was a double-wall, doubletouch
routine free-kick that gave Reyes
his second set-piece score.
He went on to float his next
attempt onto the City bar, Tozer missed
a sitter, and but for a few brief forays
City were dead meat.
This result made Ngaruawahia
champions of the league.
1982 Ngaruawahia-AFFCo United Women
Rear: Sandra Fraser. Lenice Fitzgibbon, Doreen Clancy , Catherine Williams, Natalie Hinton, Susie Arlich, Maxine Williams.
Front: Margaret Morris, Andrea Everleigh, Vivienne Hinton. Glenys Fraser, Lyn Walters.
115