NUAFC 1968-2018

1-0 against Onehunga-Mangere. 1st
division lost 0-1 to Cameron. 2nd
division beat Te Kuiti 2-1. 3rd division
lost to Unicol 1-2. In the 4th division
the boys had their first loss of the
season to Claudelands Rovers 2-
4. Womens team defeated Claudelands
Rovers No.2 by 1-0. 7th Grade lost to
Maeroa 1-5.
The 8th Grade boys are doing
well having won their last game 8-0
against Berklay giving them a tally for
the year of 45 goals for with four
against.
Coach Glen Gray sent four of
his squad to the trials on Sunday and
had three of them get into the Waikato
squad – Brian Harding, John Bell and
Derek Tilston. Paul McMillan missed
by the proverbial whisker despite
netting a superb goal in the trials. In
competition this season the boys have
won 4 and drawn 1 for a 33-2
aggregate.
United Side Upsets
Popular Forecasts
Waikato Times
May 26th, 1977
Ngaruawahia AFFC0 United
proved, as many other soccer teams
have before, that it's a mug's game to
predict cup tie results.
Not many would have backed
down-in-the-dumps United to beat
Claudelands Rovers in a Chatham Cup
match at Galloway Park on Saturday.
But it did win _—on penalty deciders
after 100 minutes of football.
United managed to hold the
favourite to a scoreless first half, aided
by Rovers' poor finishing and a missed
penalty by Graeme Foster.
The numerous penalties were
features of the game and it was from
the spot that Peter Thomas scored
Rovers' first goal in the 70th minute.
In the 84th minute Thomas
put Rovers further ahead when he
scored after a goal-mouth scramble but
in the dying minutes of the game
United's new skipper John Brown
scored two penalties to equalise.
For United it was more or less
a reversal of the previous week's game,
when it lost 3-2 to Kelston West after
leading 2-0 eight minutes before the
end,
In extra time on Saturday,
both sides employed panicky kick and
rush tactics and failed to add to the
score.
Then came the penalties and
for Rovers Thomas missed the first
one. United went on to score all of its
five kicks and take the match.
Thistle Moves Closer to
Chatham Cup
The Huntly Press
Wednesday June 1st, 1977
Huntly Thistle, for the first
time in many years, became Waikato
Chatham Cup finalists on Saturday
when they defeated Ngaruawahia-
Affco United by 3 goals to nil at
Huntly Domain.
United started play obviously
seeking an early lead and for the first
10 minutes, apart from a great miss by
Alan Nobilo, had Thistle under heavy
pressure. However Thistle sorted
themselves out and a ball from
Hancock found Malone who turned on
the spot and hit a scorcher from just on
the edge of the box. Five minutes later
a Hancock left-footer was just
deflected past.
At the other end, just on the
half hour, a bad Jimmy Moyes backpass
nearly gave one away but good
work by keeper Manktelow retrieved
the situation. At the other end a Nobilo
corner was badly headed by a usually
accurate John Stewart. However five
minutes later the same player nearly
made amends only to be thwarted by a
great save from Sandy MacDonald.
Thistle went into the second
half facing the sun and within the space
of 10 minutes shots by Hancock,
Malone, Snapes, Malone again, Stewart
and Hancock again either struck the
post, the crossbar, a defender and at
one stage was cleared off the line.
Somehow United survived, but minutes
later a good run by Nobilo, who passed
to Malone, who pushed on to Hancock
saw Thistle’s skipper miss from right
out in front.
About 70 minutes gone and
United came close to scoring but
skipper John Brown miss-hit a ball
right out in front. Two minutes later
winger Gorman, with only the Huntly
keeper to beat, put his shot wide.
With about 10 minutes to go
Malone put the issue beyond doubt
when he took a pass from A. Nobilo
and rammed home a right-footer from
close in. Back came Thistle and skipper
Hancock, in close succession, went
just wide with one and hit the post with
another. However, with only minutes to
go, Hancock got the goal he so rightly
deserved when he headed home a
perfectly taken Jimmy Moyes free kick.
In a team who all performed
well Jimmy McNeil got the nod for the
Huntly Dry-Cleaners Player of the Day
award.
Finishing is United’s
biggest problem says Les
Waikato Times
3rd June 1977
Ngaruawahia - A F F C 0 United
goes into the third round of the
Chatham Cup soccer competition as
un­derdog tomorrow against
neighbouring Huntly Thistle.
Having beaten Claudelands Rovers
on penalties in the last round,
United will be seeking to raise its
game at Huntly against a side boosted
by beating previously undefeated
Auckland University last Saturday.
United inched its way up from the
bottom of the North­ern fourth division
last week with a 1-0 win over
Onehunga Mangere.
But United player-Coach Les
Vuletich was far from pleased with
his team’s performance against the
bottom-of-the-league Aucklanders.
He said “Onehunga was a weak
team. We missed opportunity after
opportunity - finishing is our biggest
problem at the moment.”
For this reason Vuletich is pushing
the new club captain John Brown up
from midfield into an attacking role
against Huntly.
Vuletich is still himself sidelined
after breaking his wrist in the Rovers
Cup game and United keeper Ian
Innes continues to have eye problems
although he did have a run in the
second team last week.
Thistle skipper Graham Hancock
expects his side to be at full strength
tomorrow and keeper Warren
Manktelow, who went to hospital
with a knee injury last Saturday,
should be fit.
Hancock said Huntly will not be
taking the United clash lightly. In
two preseason friendlies Huntly
managed to scrape through to 1-0
and 2-1 wins over United.
Thistle stings too hard
for United team
Waikato Times
June 6th 1977
1977
Huntly Thistle had too much
sting for Ngaruawahia­AFFC0
United in Saturday's Chatham Cup
third round soccer tie at Huntly
Do­main.
Huntly goes into the last 32 of the
draw after a 3-0 win and a host of
near misses.
Even so, United did not go down
without a fight and should not be
demoralised by losing to a side which
only a week before had ended
University's unbeaten run in the
N or t h e r n L e a g u e t h i r d
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