NATIONAL LEAGUE SOCCER Brighton beaten by late penalty

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33817, 14 April 1975, Page 19

NATIONAL LEAGUE SOCCER Brighton beaten by late penalty

From GRAHAM MOORE)

WELLINGTON.

The Stop Out player-coach. Maurice I illotson, was both happy and disappointed when he went under the showers at Te Whiti Park vesterdav.

His team had just beaten New Brighton, 1-0, in the second round of the Rothmans National League and taken maximum points from its two games, but he had hoped there might have been an avalanche of goals for his side. True, there might have been. Territorially, the Hutt

Valley team had an 80-20} advantage, but the goals just would not come. As Tillotson, said: “We} made hard work of it.” It was not until five minutes from the end that the] sole goal was scored — a penalty from Maurice Batey} after a linesman had de-! tected a handling offence} among a melee of players in! the Brighton goal-mouth. B u t Tillotson was! confident that had the Seasides’ defence been breached

earlier, there would have! been a flood of scoring; and few will argue with him. } FEW ATTACKS New Brighton’s raids were! restricted to about two in each half, and the nearest; [the southerners came to ' scoring was when Paul Glas!son, working hard all the ! time, hit a 30-metre drive ! which scraped the bar. Stop Out took this in its stride and time and again came back, forcing a series of seven corners in about 15min. The only real bulwark against this onslaught was Ken France, still as sound as ever at reading the game. His . compatriots, Frank Madrussan, Trevor Blake, and Trevor Reece all helped to stem the tide.

Perhaps, Stop Out missed Sam Malcolmson, who went off with a groin injury after only two minutes, but the side covered up very well the gap left in the attack, even though it was apparent there was no-one tall enough to head home that } multitude of corner kicks.

No-one was outstanding in the; attack, but the general build-up i from defence, through mid-field, to the offensive could not really: be faulted. The necessary! ammunition was lacking in the, forwards’ finishing and with their} inability to steer round the Brighton defensive quartet. I Stop Out’s defence was little} troubled. The goal-keeper,: George Flecknor. was virtually a spectator, while Ken Dugdaie and Mike Jones collected what was left of the Glasson-Richardson attacks after Keith Barton and Tillotson had taken their bite of the cherry. Richardson might so easily have been a threat in the latter stages for Brighton had he not Insisted on falling into his old ways, the off-side trap, and had Brighton been able to take advantage of a Stop Out side which seemed to be running out of ideas of how to break through and score. , However, the Brighton coach, Martin Stewart, decided he would rather hang on lor one point. He dropped Graham Dacombe and strengthened his defence with Harry Carrington, but this was when Stop Out pressed home that last desperate attack, forced a corner, the penalty, and ;the single goal needed for two points.