NATIONAL LEAGUE SOCCER Brighton lets lead slip away

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34126, 12 April 1976, Page 20

NATIONAL LEAGUE SOCCER Brighton lets lead slip away

(By

DERRICK MANSBRIDCE

For a few exhilarating minutes at Queen Elizabeth 11 Park yesterday New Brighton led the Rothmans National Soccer League when it had been expected to do no more than pi op up the other end of the table for the whole of the season.

At that stage the seasiders were leading ; North Shore United, 2-1, | and were the only firstround winners to be ahead of a second-round opponent. But the chance was lost. North Shore came back with i two goals in seven minutes ! late in the game and struggled through at 3-2 victor. It was a match which had much honest endeavour, and an occasional sparkle, but overall it had to make up in goals for the cohesive football it lacked. WENT ON DEFENCE Brighton might well be blaming itself for not having taken at least one point, if not for surrendering both. In the lead, and not meeting enough opposition to worry it unduly, the seasiders withdrew into defence to save what it had gained, instead of maintaining pressure on a very shaky North Shore defence. Little Michael Glubb was left to weave a lonely path through the middle, while Frank Madrus-

san suddenly found himself I starved of the ball when before he had been given a feast and had thoroughly enjoyed himself, to the discomforture of thei Shore back line Glubb tried hard—which for! Glubb means that he never stopped running or striving to carve out an opening. There were some near things, too. But it was probably asking too much of him to do everything while the pair who should have been backing him at all times, Johan Verweij and Graham Dacombe, were playing deep behind Glubb, The defensive complex Brighton has developed when in the lead has paid off twice; this time It did not.

MORE CHANCES Even so, it was a misfortune. With both teams making numerous errors in defence. Brighton had more chances of scoring than did North Shore, but more particularly in the first half when the team was pressing in strength. Three times before Dacombe opened the scoring in the twenty-sixth minute Brighton might have scored. Madrussan missed the easiest chance, failing to make more than a sliding contact with a header when the goal was wide open. But Madrussan atoned by making the first goal for Dacombe, and after Keith Hobbs equalised in the thirty-third minute, put Brighton back into the lead himself seven minutes later. The ball slid off Jim Smith’s head to an unmarked Madrussan and Madrussan rarely misses these gifts. Brilliantly, he took the ball past Sandy Davie and had noone else to beat. This was the stage, and for some tim e after, that Brighton led all its league rivals, but the balance of play began to swing North Shore’s way. The Aucklanders were not getting clearcut openings but they kept chipping away and causing some panic.

VERWEIJ GOES CLOSE Twice however, Brighton nearly saved itself. A 30-yarder from Verweij was just off target, and a tremendous melee in the Shore goalmouth saw Glubb and Dacombe doing everything but put the ball past Davie. Suddenly, the tide of Shore’s attacks swamped the seasiders. The left back. Duncan Cole, hammered home a shot from 20 yards, and seven minutes later Bill de Graaf hooked into the net from close range. And that was that.

I Richard Wilson had much te do in goal for Brighton, safe in close-combat battles in the air, and once making a miraculous recovery to a shot that nearly sneaked past him on the goalkeeper’s blind side. But he wa, beaten twice from long range neither time picking up the ball ' quickly enough. Allan Smith and Rab Brown were strong in defence, Fred Roest was the plek of the midfield men. and. of course, Glubb and Madrussan were most danlierous in attack. The New Zeaand representative Alan Elrick, using the space on the right to great advantage, posed great problems for Brighton's defenders, while de Graaf won hall la the air but was less effectice than usual in laying it off to colleagues.