Combine The LEFT And VbCrLF Thingy

I have used thecode which is below to get x characters on to display

<%= LEFT(rsName.Fields.Item("columnname").Value,50)%>

It works fine but when I use this same code to get x characters plus display it using VBCRLF, with the <br> with writing the code :

<%=Replace LEFT
(Recordset1.Fields.Item("Detail").Value,VbCrLf,"<br><br>",50)%>

it gives me error so please can you tell me how can i trim the characaters and at the same time use VBCRLF. why does this above code with LEFT + vbCrLF doesn't work.