ALBION SHOW THEIR CLASS

"A good game of good football played in good spirit in front of a great crowd" was Worthing boss Alan Pook's summary of what ultimately became a comfortable victory for illustrious local neighbours Brighton & Hove Albion at Woodside Road on Tuesday night.
By The Newsroom
Published 15th Jul 2004, 13:41 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 01:01 BST

Rebels will take many positives from a contest in which they often shone '” despite rarely looking like winning '” but never looked outclassed.

Worthing started well with Sam Francis' 25-yarder flying narrowly wide after just three minutes before Mark Knee sent his volley the wrong side of the post three minutes later after beating Albion keeper Michael Kuipers to a bouncing ball 20 yards out.

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It took a further five minutes before Brighton could test Worthing stopper Will Packham, Leon Knight capitalised on a poor Glenn Davies pass to move into the box before shooting tamely.

But Albion were starting to move up the gears. Half chances fell to Jake Robinson and Nathan Jones before David Lee's incisive through ball was collected by the inch-perfect run of Knight and despatched clinically to open the scoring on 29 minutes.

Debutant Phil Ruggles worked tirelessly alongside Francis in search of an equaliser, relentlessly pursuing any Albion defenders lingering in possession, but both struggled to escape the attentions of Guy Butters and the towering Danny Cullip.

Worthing's best chance for an equaliser fell to Francis two minutes before half time but he headed Mark Knee's perfect cross straight at Kuipers, with Ruggles unable to find the direction to convert the rebound.

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The second half struggled to match the fluency of the first with a plethora of substitutions from both sides, but Albion's professional-level fitness began to show. The impressive David Lee's volley forced a good save from Packham after 61 minutes, before Leon Knight scored once again with a smart turn and shot from 20 yards that just squeezed over the line after Packham could only parry.

The final goal came five minutes before time when Marc Pullan diverted an interception past the stranded rebels sub-keeper Ronan Callaghan from 20 yards under pressure from John Piercy.

Alan Pook was philosophical about the result: "They deserved to win but we showed a lot of quality. It's a shame for the youngsters that it was 3-0 but I'm pleased with our defending tonight, we've got a lot of options there."

WORTHING: Packham; Davies, Pullan, Lamont, Dicker; Ekoku, Rogers, Hill, Knee; Francis, Ruggles. Subs used: Holmes, Callaghan, Guile, Parsons, Grice.

BRIGHTON: Kuipers, Watson, Cullip, Butters, Mayo; Beck, Harding, Lee, Jones; Robinson, Knight, Subs used: Hart, Oatway, Virgo, Piercy, Hinshelwood, El Abd, Roberts, Budd.

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