Doug Ottley at his best in 1956 Southland Soccer Competition

Soccer is at an exciting time this season with any of three teams able to win, Waihopai, Brigadiers or United.  Each team still has to play one game to complete the round and on current form it would be impossible to pick a winner.  It shows how tight this competition is with Brigadiers and United fighting out a hard draw in atrocious conditions, and the final score of 1-1 was a fair indication of the game.

In the earlier round Brigadiers were lucky to be able to draw with the versatile Waihopai side, but there was nothing lucky about the tie with United.  In this game, Bob Morrison played a strong game and Doug Ottley was his usual tower of strength and the red shirts that day was every bit as good as the United side, under the leadership of J. Kellock.
The Southland Times commented that "Special mention has to be made of Doug Ottley, and his work in the forwards was nothing short of spetacular.  He showed that he has lost none of the skills which saw him represent New Zealand a few years ago"
As expected Waihopai beat Thistle, but it was not as easy for them as expected and the score indicated.  At half-time there was still no score and up to that time Thistle had a couple of chances where they could have put the ball in the goal.  As it was the score actually made Waihopai look better than it was.
The two goals were the result of Thistle's goalkeepr, Fraser, his decision making in leaving the sticks at the wrong moment proved fatal for his team.   J. Blackwell, the back-up goalie proved his worth in the game against United recently with approx 5 saved goals and one amazing dive that stopped a sure goal from the boot of Ollie Schins.

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