Southampton holds soccer lead

Press, 1 March 1982, Page 19

Southampton holds soccer lead

NZPA-Reuter London Southampton, leading the English Football League for the first time in its history, showed no sign of faltering as it brushed aside Birmingham, 3-1, on Saturday. The win, which included Kevin Keegan’s twenty-third goal of the season, preserved Southampton's four-point advantage at the top of the first division. Swansea, another club seeking its first league title, moved into second place with an impressive 2-0 win at Arsenal. Ray Kennedy, formerly of Arsenal, scored Seansea's opening goal. Manchester United, lying second overnight, slipped back to third after a crowd of 57.872 — the biggest attendance at a British league game for four years — saw it held, 1-1, at its Old Trafford ground by local rivals, Manchester City. Liverpool, which resumes its defence of the European Cup on Wednesday, warmed up with a solid 2-0 win at Leeds which propelled it ahead of Arsenal and Ipswich into fourth place. Ipswich surprisingly came to grief against struggling Wolverhampton, which was indebted to two goals from Wayne Clarke in. the first 20 minutes for its 2-1 win. An even more improbable result looked likely in the match between the former European champions, Nottingham Forest, and the bottom club. Middles-

brough, still looking for its first away win of the season. Dave Hodgson gave Middlesbrough a sixth-minute lead which it held until Stuart Gray equalised in the ninetieth minute. Keegan put Southampton ahead with a seventeenth minute penalty. Frank Worthington, also with a’penalty, equalised after 40 minutes but Southampton was applying most of the pressure and Graham Baker scored in the fifty-sixth and sixty-first minutes to see it home. Alan Ball, the 36-year-old midfield player who was a member of England's 1966 World Cup winning side, marked his 700th league appearance by setting up Baker's second goal. Manchester City scored first. Kevin Reeves glancing in a header after 17 minutes. Manchester United equalised after 38 minutes through Kevin Moran and the remainder of the match produced some predictably competitive action but no goals. Liverpool, surging menacingly up the table after a stuttering start to the season, was given a 40th-minute lead by Graeme Souness. A second goal by Welshman, lan Rush, after 76 minutes put it beyond Leeds’s reach. Aston Villa, which like Liverpool is still in contention for the European Cup, also won, beating Coventry, 2-1, at home in a bitter battle. Garry Thompson, who headed Coventry into a third-minute

lead, was later sent off for kicking an opponent. Gordon Cowans, with a fifth-minute penalty, and Gary Shaw, after 19 minutes, were Aston Villa’s scorers. Villa, without a manager since the recent resignation of Ron Saunders, now leaves for Simferopol in Crimea to take' on Dynamo Kiev of the Soviet Union in a European Cup quar-ter-final match on Wednesday. English League Division one.— Arsenal 0. Seansea 2; Aston Villa 2, Coventry 1; Brighton 2, West Bromwich 2; Everton 0, West Ham 0; Leeds 0, Liverpool 2; Manchester United 1, Manchester City 1: Nottingham Forest 1. Middlesbrough 1; Southampton 3. Birmingham I; Stoke 0, Tottenham 2; Sunderland 1, Notts County 1; Wolverhampton 2. Ipswich 1. Division two.— Barnsley 0. Blackburn 1; Cambridge 2, Grimsby 2; Cardiff 0, Sheffield Wednesday 2; Charlton 1, Shrewsbury 0; 6erby 2, Newcastle 2; Leicester 1, Bolton 0; Luton 2. Oldham 0; Norwich 0, Queens Park Rangers 1; Orient 1, Watford 3; Rotherham 2, Crystal Palace 0; Wrexham 1, Chelsea 0. Division three— Brentford 2, Exeter 0; Bristol Rovers 2, Southend 1; Burnley 3, Portsmouth 0; Carlisle 1, Swindon 1; Chesterfield 2, Reading 1; Doncaster 0, Newport 2; Fulham 2, Huddersfield 2; Gillingham 3,

Plymouth 2; Oxford 3. Chester 1; Preston 1, Bristol City -3; Walsall 1. Millwall 1; Wimbledon 1, Lincoln 1. Division four.— Bury 4, Tranmere O; Halifax 1. Hereford 2; Hull 2, Mansfield 0; Northampton 1, Bournemouth 0; Peterborough 4, Hartlepool 4; Sheffield United 2, Port vale 1; Torquay 1, Blackpool 1. Scottish League Premier division.— Aberdeen 0, Dundee 0; Airdrieonians 3, Partici; 1; Dundee United 1, St

Mirren 1: Hibernian 1, Celtic 0; Rangers 3, Morton 0. Division one— Clydebank 0, Falkirk 2; Dunfermline 1, Hamilton 1; East Stirling 2, Dumbarton 2; Hearts 4, Raith 0; Kilmarnock 1, Ayr 1; Motherwell 3, Queens Park 0; St Johnstone 3, Queen of South 3. Division two.- Albion 2, Montrose 2; Arbroath 3. Cowdenbeath 0; Berwick 2. Meadowbank 2; Brechin 3, Stranraer 0; Clyde 2, Stirling 0; East Fife 1, Forfar 0; Stenhousemuir 2, Alloa 2.