Slowness, a disinclination among the forwards to tackle persistently and poor placing were mainly responsible for Golders Green's failure at Southall on Wednesday evening.

Had it not been for the stalwart work of Broadis at centre-half and W. Boston at right back, who protected Jacobs in goal, the Southall score might easily have been far greater than it was.

The Southall right half, P. Nottage, is a recent acquisition. He used to play centre-half for Romford, and gave a good account of himself.

Owing to the severe shaking-up he received on Saturday, Hill was considered unfit to play, so Jacobs, from the reserves, was substituted. T. Caswell, in place of R. Hayward, was not altogether unexpected, for Hayward has not been on the best form since the season opened. Illness accounted for the absence of Bloxham, and Breagan, who took his place, tried hard to feed the forward line.

The Golders Green forwards were not fast enough to out-run the Southall defence. Snazel and Walker lacked pace for a great part of the game, and it was not until shortly before the final whistle was blown that the team generally showed any signs of scoring. Leahy, it is true, was well down the field with no opposition on a number of occasions, but he failed to get his goal through mis-timing his kick, and F. Boston, too, was unable to find the mark. He was troubled with his right ankle, and found that his speed was greatly reduced on the wing.

At several points in the game it seemed as though Golders Green were playing with four forwards and four half-backs - due to Browne's interpretation of his job at inside-left. Admittedly he has a roving commission, but he tends to spend too much time with the halves.

Broadis and W. Boston between them saved several awkward situations, but when his chance came with a free kick in the second half, Broadis gave the impression that his old skill in finding the net had almost deserted him.

Generally speaking, there was very little punch in the Green's team, and had it not been for Bucci, Broadis and W. Boston there is little doubt that the whole fabric would have collapsed. The forward line seemed unable to make a sustained attack such as the one which gave Southall the only goal of the match, but when, near the end, such an attempt was made, the Southall defence was soon crumbling and Golders Green should have made the result a draw.

The goal which Marchant scored for Southall in the first half came only 10 minutes before the whistle went for half-time and was well deserved. The forwards had made a series of attacks which were decisively repulsed by the Golders Green defence before Lawes, Marchant and Graves broke through. Finally, after a hard tussle to protect the goal, MARCHANT was able to shoot and he had Jacobs well beaten.

This did not seem to worry Golders Green a great deal, and they appeared to be saving their energy for the second part of the game.

After the change-over, however, they failed to extend themselves and Southall were not inclined to force the pace, so that the game held little interest.

Kicking too high was a fault from which both teams suffered, especially in the second half, and as a result there was a certain amount of clever headwork put in.

As the light began to grow a little deceptive towards the end of the game, Golders Green put on a spurt and attacked more decisively, on several occasions forcing corners, but it was difficult to understand why they were not able to take advantage of these. On only one occasion did the ball reach the Southall net. This was after a corner kick by F. Boston which came to Walker. Walker shot and scored what seemed a perfect goal, but this was disallowed by the referee.

If the score at Walthamstow Avenue tomorrow is not to run into high figures against them, the Greens will have to play a much better game.