NUAFC 1968-2018

should make a good accounting of
themselves in the fourth division of the
northern league this year.
Weekend Friendlies: Ladies 1,
Hamilton 4. 1st Division 1, Melville 6.
Northern 4th 1, Huntly 3rd 2.
Two Derbies Kick off
Soccer Game
Waikato Times
April 1st, 1977
Northern League soccer kicks
off the season tomorrow afternoon with
two local derbies in the Waikato.
In the third division Hamilton
Wanderers play Huntly Thistle on
Huntly Domain and in the fourth
division Fraser, newly promoted to the
league, meets the newly amalgamated
Affco-Ngaruawahia United team at
Fraser High School
Fraser, which has heard
nothing more about Oratia United's
appeal to stop it playing in the
Northern league, has one or two injury
problems which will force changes
tomorrow from the team which beat
Hamilton's Waikato first division side
1-0 last Saturday
Fraser, which started in
Waikato fourth division five years ago
and has been promoted every season,
will be an unknown force to Affco
Ngaruawahia.
The latter side, which went
down 1-0 and 2-1 in two controversial
pre-season encounters with Huntly,
will be fielding a youthful team this
year. It will be captained by Waikato
midfield rep’ Jeff Tozer, and he will
have goalkeeper Ian Innes and
midfield man Malcolm Sowerby to
help lend experience to the side.
Ngaruawahia Soccer
Outplayed by Fraser
The Huntly Press
Wednesday April 6th, 1977
Disaster struck the
Ngaruawahia-Affco United team on
Saturday when they were completely
outplayed by Fraser by four goals to
nil. Following a good build-up to the
season, United could not fathom out
what drastic changes had occurred to
make the team play as disjointed as
they did. Fraser had no real worries in
defence and United even missed a
penalty offered to them.
It was rather puzzling to see
the Fraser team, so clearly superior on
the day in almost all areas of play,
having to cut down attackers illegally
from behind as a defensive ploy!
United suffered several
injuries on the day, with Tim Coyne
leaving the field after a few minutes of
play with a split forehead and Jeff
Sturm moving off in the second half.
With the score 1-0 at the turn Fraser
put away two more good goals and
capitalised on an error by the United
keeper (Ian Innes) to finish at 4-0.
Easter Workouts
The Huntly Press
Wednesday April 13th, 1977
Over the Easter weekend the four Club
senior teams h a d a s o l i d
w o r k o u t against each other in game
situations, especially with the
Northern League team being
rearranged to take care of positions
vacated by members injured. With
keeper Innes in hospital, rightfull
ba ck Sandy Mac Donald was
placed in goal, the position he
occupied when played for Huntly
Thistle Northern League 2nd
Division 10 years ago. The League
team played against the 1st
Division squad in a friendly but
goal-minded way in pre­parati on
for this Sat urday's competition.
Second team Manager H ans
Czic hy pla yed a colourful and
spectacular game in his team’s
goal, keeping the score respectable
with several acrobatic deflections. His
squad worked well, engineering
probing attacks from deep within
their own half and out into the
League team’s defensive area.
T h e s e c o n d m a t c h between
the 2nd and 3rd Division teams
produced 9 g oa l s a n d m a d e c l u b
history by being the first game
played wherein one team fielded a
Father-son combination - Stafford and
Peter McGee. High School 1 s t 1 1
wi n g e r B r uc e McIntosh played
well and netted twice in this match
indicating the promise of form to
come.
Biggest Headache
Waikato Times
April 15th 1977
Now the Waikato side with perhaps
the biggest headache in the Northern
League is Ngaruawahia-AFFCO
United, .which went down 4-0 to Fraser
a fortnight ago.
United coach Les Vuletich reports
crucial injuries before tomorrow's
game against Central in
Auckland. The worst is that of
goalkeeper Ian Innes, who has
been in hospital for nearly two weeks
with an eye injury.
Centreback Tim Coyne has had the
stiches taken out of .his forehead,
which was gashed in the Fraser
game, and although he is available for
tomorrow he is an unlikely starter.
Vuletich said: "We have had to
bring in two new defenders and a
new winger, which changes our
team a h e l l o f a l o t . . .
1977
"We're not as strong as we would
like to be. Our game, against Fraser
gave us food for thought and we
weren't fast enough.
"Cen tral ar e a m at ure team,
with a lot of slower style
of .football than Fraser."
Ngaruawahia 1st Division
Soccer
The Huntly Press
Wednesday April 20th, 1977
Waikato 1st Division
Ninety minutes of exciting
soccer provided Fraser and United
supporters with entertaining football at
Ngaruawahia on Saturday.
United have had some
difficulty in finding a cohesive 11 to
begin the season with and were not
holding out very much hope of welding
together so soon in the season.
However, the fine opposition provided
by Fraser, lifted United’s efforts and
the first division match was a
“boomer”.
Captain Eddie Carrigan lead
United by example and it was good
goalkeeping by Fraser that kept scoring
to the single United goal. Fraser
managed the draw when Kevin Riley,
trying to clear from his line, had the
ball screw off the side of his boot into
the net.
The midfield player to stand
out for United was Gary Barnes,
making a comeback after several years
away from the game. His youth and
potential promise an exciting future for
him.
The game became a
goalkeeper’s nightmare with Tony
Armstrong sending his shot bouncing
in front of the keeper and watching it
roll up the keeper’s arm, over his
shoulder and into the net. Play flowed
rapidly from one end of the field to the
other, providing supporters with
“tennis-viewers-neck”.
Northern League 4th Division
Playing in Auckland against
Central, United could not overcome
their bogey experienced on miniature
fields. Central’s pitch could have
almost been tucked away into the
corner of the Ngaruawahia ground.
With a rearranged defence, United tried
to play a short passing game and
managed to score first when Alan Rose
beat (the) keeper to a through ball from
Sowerby. Central equalised before the
turn and added two more in the second
half for their 3-1 win.
Ngaruawahia Results
Fifty-eight goals were scored
in the first full week-end of
competitive soccer in Ngaruawahia-
Affco games.
Twelve teams from United
were involved in a series of games that
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