NATIONAL LEAGUE SOCCER United takes revenge on Brighton

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33610, 12 August 1974, Page 16

NATIONAL LEAGUE SOCCER United takes revenge on Brighton

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D. P. MANSBRIDGE)

“Revenge is sweet at the best of times: it is sweeter still ' when it is well deserved.” That was the feeling which summed ' up the Christchurch United camp after the Rothmans National ; Soccer League title-holder outplayed New Brighton, 3-0, at ! English Park yesterday.

Brighton had defeated United on each of the three previous occasions they have met this season, but the heavilymuddied, dejected seasides who trooped off English Park would willingly have exchanged at least two of them for yesterday’s defeat.

In the last six weeks, Brighton and United have simply changed places: United now top, Brighton fifth. And worse still for Brighton, instead of playing for first and second prizes, the club faces a stern tussle to finish even in the top four. Its cup of sorrow overflowed 15 minutes from the end of yesterday’s game when the tenacious centreback, R. AJmond, who has

been “booked" twice this season, was sent off by the Wellington referee. Mr T. Delahunty, for “foul language.” The loss of Almond, if he is suspended by the Canterbury Football Association’s judiciary committee on Wednesday evening, will be an immense blow to Brighton for the matches that still lie ahead of the club.

The difference between United and Brighton was emphasised in yesterday’s conditions. Whereas Christchurch, by varying its tactics and using the ball constructively, rose above the mud, Brighton bogged itself down in a largely fruitless boot-and-chase fashion. ■RELIED ON ERRORS

Certainly. Brighton’s tactics caused some anxious moments in the United defence, but they were designed more to produce errors than to carve out clearcut openings. And as long as the United defenders kept cool and cut down their mistakes to a minimum, Brighton's feared strikers were rarely a danger. In 90 minutes. Brighton had no more than two definite sights of goal, just before and just after United went into a 3-0 lead. On both occasions the ability of Brighton to break away quickly brought it openings but W. Quirke half-volleyed' the first yards over the bar and hit the side-netting with the second. Apart from these two misses, the United goal was threatened only from four successive corners inside a minute near the end of the first half, when United led 1-0, and an overhead shot by K. Morton which went too high earlier in the same period At the other end, it was a different story.

United built Its win on two superb goals scored by T. Randles, the Wine Cellar Restaurant “player of the match.” The first. In the eleventh minute, was less snectacular but far more satisfying. ONE-TWO MOVEMENT Randles started the movement with a pass to F. Madrussan, made space for himself, took the return lob and as O Nuttrldge raced out to save his goal, with two other defenders equally well placed to do something about the situation. Randles deftly lifted the ball over the keeper’s head and under the bar. Randies's second effort will go down among the classics of its kind Once more he was prowling around the outside of the action, awaiting his chance, and when the ball came out to him. 25 yards from goal, he scorched a pathway into the roof of the net. These two goals broke the back of Brighton. Its coach. Alan Vest, gambled mightily in the second half to get a goal that would have onened up the game once more. He moved Almond into the mid-field and left only three men in defence. It did not pay a dividend but it did make United fight to maintain control. Inevitably, gaps were left in Brighton’s defence, and the only criticism of United’s performance was that once the side’s defence had settled down to the extra demands put upon it. the forwards did not take more chances. BLYTH OPENS WAY

A third goal came after 61 minutes, inspired by the pass from L. Blyth deep in his own half that sent K. Doornenbal racing goalwards. Doornenbal lost the ball, worried it away from Nuttrldge. and S Sumner had an easy task of putting it into an empty net. For the rest of the game United did everything but score again, and Sumner, although he was a tremendous force in attack. was mainly to blame. Three times he elected to go it alone when he had colleagues, on their own, waiting for a pass, and either lost the ball or ran out of room in which to use it. But for each critic of this part of United’s performance. the side had a hundred who had nothing but praise for the team’s play. Movements were built on positive football sharp man-to-man passes that opened up Brighton’s defence and left a threatening situation. There were. too. magnificent individual battles between B. Hardman and A, Smith, which would have gone on as long as the referee was prepared to keep the match alive. And there was the tussle between K. Mulgrew and R Drinkwater which Drink- ; water won if only because Mulgrew did not have one direct shot at goal. MID-FIELD PLAYERS W. Amey formed a splendid mid-field link with Randles and Hardman. Doornenbal ran himself to a standstill and had just enough strength to drag himself off the field eight minutes from the end and lift a hand to shake that of his substitute. M. McNaughton. K. France. G. Griffiths. L. Blyth and P. Dando complemented a solid defence that gave very little away, and Madrussan made some telling runs and deserved a goal hirr.self Brighton was unfortunate to have G Storer playing under the handicap of two broken bones in his right hand, the fingers being strapped together. And it was a tragedy that Almond, who had given so much to his side, marred his otherwise magnificent display by joining in argument in which he was only a spectator , J Souter T Reece and T. Blake did many good things in an overworked Brighton defence, but Mulgrew. Quirke and Morton were given few chances to shine and found the heavygoing reduced their speed off the mark to that of the slowest. This was one of the finest of all United performances, with every man playing for a colleague as the team strides on under a fortune that smiles on almost all that it does. Brighton knew that feeling a few weeks ago Now there is ‘only a dark cloud without a patch of blue in sight.