Although Golders Green suffered a defeat almost as ignominious as that which they had inflicted on Southall in a League match early in the season, the Middlesex [Senior] Cup match at Southall on Saturday was a good one.

The visiting team were completely overshadowed by the size and weight of their opponents, but they put up a great fight, keeping the majority of the game in the Southall half of the field. The Southall goals were mainly scored as a result of sharp rushes downfield, culminating in hard shots which beat Hill every time.

The Southall ground, unlike so many others, was fairly sound, and although slightly slippery, was conducive to fast play.

In the first "45" four goals were scored, all by Southall, and three of them came close together before Golders Green had realised what was happening. HEILLINS made the opening score with a quick shot after a run downfield. The backs, Cox and W. Boston, did their best, but the forwards had them beaten, and the ball was in the net. This roused the Greens, and they attacked hard, but never kept the ball. Scully, Petrie and Priestly were too good. They got the ball away, sent it to the forward line, and a quick run beat the Golders Green halves and backs. Hill saved the first shot, but was unable to recover in time, and ETTE had snapped the ball into the net. Graves, the centre-forward, was also to the fore when this point was made.

Here it became evident that the lightness of the Green's team was going to count badly against them, for soon after the re-start the ball was again in the back of the Green's net. This time it was LAWES who had sent it home.

Tightening up both attack and defence, Golders Green looked like putting up a fight, but they had too many faults. Play was allowed to rest too much on the individual and did not show enough team-work. Times without number chances to score were muffed badly. Green was one of the worst offenders. He missed several excellent shots which would haven given Golders Green a chance to draw level. Another general failing was that forwards would take the ball to an oblique angle before attempting to shoot instead of getting in front of the posts. This oblique mania lost one perfectly good goal when Soden, having got past the defence in the centre of the pitch, dribbled the ball to the right and shot obliquely, missing the objective altogether, when a straight hard shot would have had the Southall custodian, Green, beaten hands down.

Play continued in this vein, Southall swinging the ball about with good hard kicks and running fast to keep up with it, and Golders Green playing the dribbling game, losing the ball as fast as they got it. They made several sound attacks on the home goal, but Green was always ready. He played a good game, but was more frequently relieved of worry for the safety of his goal than was necessary by Golders Green's bad shooting.

On the defensive, W. Boston and Cox, the reserve back, were playing hard and well, but they were out-ran and over-borne by the weightier Southall forwards. Hill tied himself in knots to save some shots, and succeeded. To him much credit was due that the score was not more than six in favour of Southall.

Before the fourth goal was scored by Priestly, Golders Green muffed several chances. On one occasion, after the home 'keeper had cleared, the ball came back quickly. There was no one in goal. Green had a lovely chance to score, but he took too long making up his mind, and Petrie came across and took the ball away.

Green, Soden and Browne were together in a melee in the Southall goalmouth and it seemed that at last a goal was to result, but neither of them succeeded in doing anything useful. The ball want away back to the Golders Green end of the pitch. It landed at a part of the field entirely devoid of players, and though Golders Green men were nearest the Southall forwards got it first. Neat work by Bucci and Broadis prevented any further danmage for a little time, but not for long.

Again too much reliance on individual play gave the ball to Southall and PRIESTLY took it down past Weaver and W. Boston, and shot. Hill, anticipating what was about to happen, jumped, but he was too early, and he was coming back to the ground as the ball flashed over his head.

Lawes, Graves and Ette played a very good game for Southall and had the Golders Green forwards well gauged. They could almost anticipate each successive move of the Golders Green team, and so succeeded in keeping them in check.

Half-time thus saw Southall with four goals to nil.

After the interval Golders Green seemed determined to catch up with this overwhelming start and settled down to such purpose that a score deemed imminent. But failures to make use of chances freely presented to them were very noticeable, and it was not until a free kick was awarded the Greens that they scored. The kick was taken by BROADIS from right in front of the Southall goal, and he made a lovely shot of it.

Hard on the heels of this goal came another, by F. BOSTON, a fine piece of work which deserved great credfit.

Southall next decided that a lead of two goals was not enough to make the match safe, so they settled down to run Golders Green off the field, and they did this to the tune of two more goals, scored respectively by GRAVES and ETTE, the second within two minutes of the first.

No more goals came, although in the closing stages there was much hard pressing at both ends, and Golders Green were losing chance after chance, either through waiting to take aim or wild kicking. The angle shot at goal was again a cause of further failures.

Bucci was injured on his shoulder near the end of the match, but he pluckily played on, and was still able to put life in the team, while F. Boston received a blow over the eye from the ball and was only able to continue with difficulty.

Bloxham and Hayward were badly missed, and it is possible that had they been playing there would have been a different tale to tell. Cox did his best to fill the vacancy at left-back, and though his play was not brilliant it was sound and reliable. The forward line was weak in front of goal, and missed many opportunities which should have been taken with both hands. Weaver and Broadis, in the face of heavy opposition, did their best to back up Bucci and played a fair game, while Browne was not up to his usual standard.

For Southall's half-back line, Scully and Priestly were good, and the backs played hard and fast. Graves, the centre-forward, tracked the Greens many times and displayed an astonishing turn of speed.