Note
– This Auckland City has no connection to the current Auckland City
Founded 1972
Colours Green
Ground ?? MAP's ground is Anderson Park but not sure they used this ground
when they were in the National League
Honours None
Auckland City was formed
as a merger between National league club Mt Albert-Ponsonby &
Northern League club Eden.
Almost
as soon as the merger was announced, Eden's star player, Bill Hunter,
transferred to Blockhouse Bay. Mike Farac then transferred the same way
just before the season started while they also lost 3 of Mt
Albert-Ponsonby's best players, leaving coach Fred Dubber with what
the NZ Soccer Annual described as a threadbare side.
The
season started with a 2-0 home loss to Caversham and didn't really
get much better managing only 2 wins all season (4-3 at home against
New Brighton and 2-1 away to Gisborne City). The only really bright
spark was former NZ U23 rep Bruce Leuschke, who scored 10 of the
sides 21 goals. The defence conceded 57 goals which was a league
record that stood until Dunedin Technical conceded 59 in 1983.
Towards
the end of the season, the Mt Albert-Ponsonby side of the club
decided that it could no longer finance a National League team. Eden
were prepared to go it alone but the rules of the league prevented
this so Auckland City was left with no option but to resign from the
league.
Players & Managers of note
Fred
Dubber, a nephew of Charlie Dempsey (NZFA Chairman), had achieved success as a
player with Miramar Rangers & Eastern Suburbs including winning
the Chatham Cup in 1965 he also played for Auckland at representative
level. This was his first coaching role as head coach he had
previously been assistant to Tom McNab at Eastern Suburbs, a role he
returned to after Auckland City dissolved, he took over McNab's role
at Eastern Suburbs for the 1974 season
Player-wise,
the most notable one was Bruce Leuschke who had made 5 appearances for
NZ U23 in 1965-66
Where are they now
Auckland
City dissolved once they resigned. The name was revived in 2005 when Central United supported Auckland City FC entered the new franchise based NZ Football Championship (NZFC).
Mt
Albert-Ponsonby have played in all Northern League divisions, finding
themselves in Division 4 in 1980, which they won, before climbing
back up and winning the premier division in 1990, they lost to Nelson
United in the playoff series for National League. They are currently
in Northern League Division 1
Eden
spent most of their time in the top division of the Northern League
with a few seasons in division 2 before merging with Mt Roskill in
1997 to create Three Kings United. TKU are currently in the Premier
Division of the Northern League and TKU is one of the biggest clubs
in NZ.
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