NUAFC 1968-2018

1971
WAIKATO B DIVISION, 1971
George Sunnex, Barry White, ___?___, Sandy MacDonald,
Huntly Press
Wednesday, 21st April, 1971
Traditional first game
Ngaruawahia United commenced their season in
traditional form by going down to Matamata 4-0. United
could not find themselves on the field and Matamata
capitalized on this by scoring thrice in the first half and once
in the second. Perhaps United might have scored if the referee
had not cut the game short by about 20 minutes, offering no
reason for doing so!
Matamata smothered the United attacks. Each time a
United player gained the ball he found himself at the
receiving end of 3 or 4 tackles. Matamata played aggressively
and dominated the match as a team, while United were just a
pack of individuals. Stewart Bell had a poor day in goal, with
none of the others doing much better.
Team: Bell, Charles Gorman, Neil Gorman,
Sunnex, Sydney, Turner, Berryman, Barr, White, Burt,
Frankhauser, Docherty, Rose.
Huntly Press
Wednesday, 5th May, 1971
An away loss to Rotorua
A long trip to Rotorua to meet Rotorua Suburbs was
the lot of Ngaruawahia United on Saturday. Fine weather and
a good ground helped to make interesting football on the day.
Rotorua was found to make good use of the through ball and
the chipped ball for the forwards to run on to. Close tabs were
kept on these forwards by the United backs because of this.
Rotorua’s first goal came from such a through ball
that was deflected over the head of MacDonald at centreback
for the forward to run onto and beat Nightingale in goal
with a nicely timed drive. A second goal nearly occurred in a
similar manner, but the ball was deflected by the keeper for
MacDonald to clear off the line.
United played into the sun in the second half and
conceded another goal to Rotorua from a well-crossed ball to
the centre. The halves and the backs combined well, but the
scoring ability of the forwards was non-existent and the
Rotorua keeper was never troubled. All of the United team
worked hard, but could not finish off their attacks.
Team - Forwards: Nightingale, Frankhauser,
MacDonald, White. Halves: Barr, Sidney, Burt.
Forwards: N. Gorman, Bell, C. Gorman, Sunnex, Rose
and Berryman.
Huntly Press
Wednesday, May 12th, 1971
First point of the season
against Hamilton Wanderers
A goal from the boot of Allan Rose in the first half
of the Wanderers-United clash at Centennial Park brought
United its first points of the season.
Playing at home to a zestful Wanderers team,
Ngaruawahia United showed themselves to be a most capable
team at defence. Often were the defence called upon to
extract United from precarious positions, and this they did
quite coolly and confidently. They played with four defenders
and found that the position of centre-back was having the
dampening effect that was wanted against the opponents’
attack.
Ngaruawahia still could not find the attacking
answer in their forwards and chances went begging although
Harry Docherty came close on several occasions with
swinging drives. United scored from a movement created by
Malcolm Burt, who carried the ball down to the defenders’
goal-line and then cut it across for Allan Rose to right-foot
into the corner.
Wanderers tried hard with their through ball, but
were repeatedly smothered before any dangerous attack
formed. Their goal to equalise came from a similar move to
United’s, but at closer range. They had drawn one of the
backs out of position and shot the ball into the gap for a
forward to give Rex Nightingale no chance.
Rex Nightingale played an excellent game and
coolly saved three times under considerable pressure. David
Sidney worked very well at centre-half, supplying George
Sunnex with good passes. Neil Gorman was not his usual
snappy self, but made good openings for Harry Docherty.
An incident that occurred much to United’s
annoyance was when a Wanderers supporter interfered with a
throw-in by grabbing Allan Rose just as he was about to
throw, thus curtailing a promising move. This was surely
carrying the role of supporter to extreme lengths!
Team – Defence: Rex Nightingale, Maurice
Frankhauser, Sandy MacDonald, Barry White; linkmen:
Malcolm Burt, Alan Rose, David Sidney; forwards:
Stewart Bell, George Sunnex, Harry Docherty, Neil
Gorman. Reserves: Tony Janssen, R. Berryman.
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