England beats Scotland for; soccer crown

Press, 28 May 1979, Page 3

England beats Scotland for; soccer crown

NZPA-P.euter London England retained the British soccer championship by beating Scotland 3-1 in the final match at Wembley on Saturday, continuing Scotland’s dismal run since their traumatic trie to the World Cup finals in Argentina last year.

England’s victory gave it five points in the championship and ended the title hopes of Wales, which after a >-) draw with North-1 ern Ireland on Friday, would! have taken the crown if I Saturday’s match had also been a draw. Scotland has found win-! ning a rare luxury since it played in the World Cup finals last year, but it can take consolation from the first-half performance which often had England on the rack. But it did not make the most of the early chances created by its adventurous midfield men and paid dearly later on. John Wark scored first for Scotland bib Peter Barnes gave England a great psychological boost by equalising just before half time, i and second-half goals by Steve ■ Coppell and Kevin Keegan knocked the heart out of the Scots. Cheered or, by a huge tar-tan-clad army of supporters in the crowd of 100,000, the Scots initially adapted better to a surface made treacherous by heavy morning rain.

While England built its attacks slowly and often too deliberately, Scotland continually stretched the opposing defence with quick, intelligent raids and looked likely to repeat the victory they scored when the two teams last met at Wembley in 1977.

After the England striker Bob Latchford had a fourth-

minute goal disallowed for a foul on the goalkeeper George Wood, the Scots came close to scoring through skipper Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Soilness.

They took the lead in the twenty-second minute when, after good work on the right by striker Joe Jordan, the ball ’was switched to the unmarked Dalglish on the left. He slipped the ball inside to Wark ’ and the Ipswich player tapped in a simple igoal. Scotland continued to dictate terms as the first half ‘wore on but right on the interval a speculative shot by Barnes caught W’ood unsighted and the ball crept into the corner of the Scottish net.

Clearly lifted by the goal, England began to take on the Scottish defence more in the second half and deflated the Scots with two goals iwithin seven minutes. Wood was to blame for the first in the sixty-third in nute. He failed to hold a shot struck from the righthand side of the penalty area by Ray Wilkins, and Coppell stabbed the bajl in from close range. Keegan, the European footballer of the year, completed Scotland's misery when he rounded off a penetrating move down the middle, picking up Trevor Brooking’s exquisitely-weigh-ted return pass to beat Wood with a neatly-played shot inside the left-hand post.

Scotland struggled gallantly to get back into the game in the final 20 minutes but the England defence, earlier quite shaky, gave nothing away.

Scorers. — England: Peter Barnes, Steve Coppell, Kevin Keegan; Scotland: John Wark.