The 1971 New Zealand National Soccer League was the second season of a nationwide round-robin club competition in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

football. The league was expanded at the end of the inaugural season, so there was no relegation from the 1970 league season. Hungaria, who had competed in the inaugural season, combined with Miramar Rangers to form a new composite league team,

Wellington City Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

. Though Miramar withdrew from the team after the 1971 season, the team continued to use the new name.Hilton (1991), pp. 85-86

Promotion to the national league

At the end of the 1970 season, the winners of the Northern, Central, and Southern leagues —

Mount Albert-Ponsonby Mount Albert-Ponsonby is a semi-professional association football club in Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand. History The club is an amalgamated between Mount Albert FC and Ponsonby in 1971. Ponsonby had previously won the Chatham Cup, New Z ...

(Auckland), Waterside (Wellington), and Caversham (Dunedin) respectively — took part in a play-off series to decide the two teams which would be granted entry to the national league. the results were as follows: As a result of these matches,

and Caversham gained entry to the national league. In order to mount a stronger southern challenge, Caversham amalgamated with several other Dunedin-based sides to form Dunedin Suburbs; the team lasted for one season in this form before reverting to Caversham.

Team performance

The same four teams dominated the league as in the inaugural season, but this time it was Eastern Suburbs who finished on top. An unbeaten run of twelve matches by Mount Wellington saw them move into second place, followed by

Christchurch United Christchurch United is an amateur association football club in Christchurch, New Zealand. They compete in various Mainland Football competitions at Junior and Senior level. The club has won six National League titles and six Chatham Cup trophi ...

and Blockhouse Bay. The league title came down to the last round of matches and a controversial yet thrilling between the top two sides. In front of an estimated crowd of 10,000 at Newmarket Park, the Mount had three goals disallowed yet still managed to draw against Suburbs 2-2. Despite still having one game in hand, the Mount needed a win to hang onto its title chances, and Suburbs were crowned champions. A personal milestone occurred for Eastern Suburbs'

John Wrathall John James Wrathall, GCLM, ID (28 August 1913 – 31 August 1978), was a Rhodesian politician. He was the last white President of Rhodesia (later holders of the post were only acting as such). He formerly worked as a chartered accountant. E ...

, who scored his 1000th goal in 26 years of senior football during Suburbs' 3-1 win against

. The gap between the top four and the rest closed considerably over the debut season for

Gisborne City Gisborne City AFC was an association football club in Gisborne, New Zealand. Founded in 1939 as Eastern Union, the club changed its name to Gisborne City after winning the Central Districts League at the first attempt in 1967. As Eastern Union, ...

, who finished comfortably fifth. below that was a major gap, however, with Dunedin Suburbs,

, Stop Out,

, and

Western Suburbs FC Western Suburbs Football Club is an association football club in Porirua, New Zealand. They play their home matches at Endeavour Park in the Porirua suburb of Whitby and compete in the Central Premier League. Western Suburbs is in partnership ...

all battling to avoid relegation. Wellington's teams struggled in the league for a second season, filling all three bottom places, and it was Porirua-based Western Suburbs which finished last on goal average. If goal difference had been employed — a system which was to be introduced for the 1978 league — they would have survived and it would have been City who went down.

League table

References

Sources

* {{NZNSL New Zealand National Soccer League seasons 1