Watford rarely put under pressure

Press, 31 May 1982, Page 28

Watford rarely put under pressure

PA Auckland A torrid 45-minute session in their dressing room after the game in Wellington last Wednesday laid the foundation for Watford’s 2-0 win over the New Zealand soccer team al Mt Smart on Saturday. Watford's manager, Graham Tgylor, after watching his team wrap up the third match of the World Cup build-up series, said: “We were too slack in Wellington. The players got a sharp reminder and I knew before we went out there today we

would win.” And, with the New Zealand team not producing the same top-shelf stuff they had managed three days earlier, the visitors, once ahead, were rarely under pressure. New Zealand opened strongly and had by far the better of the opening 10 minutes. At this level opportunities count for nothing, however, and in being able to soak up that pressure, Watford quickly found its pace and threw everything it could at the New Zealanders. Adrian Elrick, perhaps all too aware of his injured head, failed to head clear in the eleventh minute, the ball was chipped through to John Barnes who played it square and Luther Blissett was untroubled to charge in and score from close range.

Lifted by that early goal, even if a little against the run of play, Watford went determinedly on to attack and never let up.

The full-backs, Steve Sims and Keith Pritchett, overlapped almost at will to form an attack which was sometimes six-strong. Little surprise, therefore, that the New Zealand defence was under real pressure. On one "occasion Bobby Almond headed off the line, the goal-keeper, Richard Wilson, was kept busy, and the full-backs, Elrick and Kenny Cresswell, did most of their work going backwards. Blissett completed his scoring in the twenty-ninth minute when a poorly directed clearance bounced between Sam Malcolmson and Almond on the edge of the penalty area and he was able to carve through on to the loose ball and again score virtually unmarked.

Watford created other chances but was let down by some poor finishing whereas the home side had but a handful of chances and, too, were let down by a couple of misdirected shots and some sound goal-keeping by Eric Steele. Grant Turner, who worked tirelessly on the leC. flank for much of the game, and Malcolmson, who had a running battle with the ever-lively Watford strikers, were the

best of the New Zealand team. Any good the New Zealand team' did was lost, however, by the amount of possession it squandered. The referee, Bill Munro, so often criticised for his approach, had one of his better games and contributed greatly to a relatively freeflowing affair. Unfortunately for the 20,000-strong crowd, it did not produce the result they were looking for. It was the biggest loss for a fullstrength national side since they set out on the campaign trial nearly 14 months ago. New Zealand's manager, John Adshead, said that the match had produced many lessons for his team. Rather than being dismayed by the result he saw it as a further step in the learning process and something to again build from. “I expect Scotland to play far more football than we saw out there today,” said Mr Adshead. “We forced Watford not to play through us and we had to cope with repeated balls being driven at us.” Watford won two and drew one of their three games in New Zealand and left Mr Adshead admitting that there was much hard work still to be done; but, as he pointed out, that was the object oi the exercise.