After two Sundays off through bad weather, the Lions came roaring out of the blocks with a vengeance to simply tear apart a young Castle Hill side. The Lions could have bagged more than the nine goals such was the dominance and a first clean sheet since March was just the icing on the cake.
Line-up:
Paige (GK)
Kyle (RB), Simon (CB), Matt R (CB), Ollie (LB)
Richard W (CM), Lee (CM), Dale (CM)
Gregg (RF), Scott CF), Gary (LF)
Despite being bottom of the our division, Castle Hill had registered two wins with plenty of goals to progress this far in the competition, so we couldn't be complacent, especially as we hadn't had a game for 3 weeks. We knew we should keep it simple to begin with, give ourselves some time on the ball and just get re-acquainted with playing football together.
Or we could just score 3 goals in the first 10 minutes and be 7 up before half time. Whatever works, eh? I think we scored with either our first or second attack as there were less than two minutes on the clock. We put a ball into the area, Scott nodded it out to Dale who dispatched a half-volley into the bottom left hand corner. Minutes later it was 2 when Gary broke down the left hand side looked up and squared a ball into the penalty area for Scott to tap in. Considering Scott's constant winding-up of Gary at Friday's Christmas dinner about how far ahead he was on goals this season, this was an incredibly generous gesture.
Gary got in on the act soon after when we counter-attacked down the left, with Rich putting Gary through on goal with an absolute peach of a pass with the outside of his boot. Gary out-ran their defence to calmly slip the ball through keeper's legs.
We then got a penalty after someone (can't remember who) got upended in the area. Gary managed to get to the ball before anybody else and he thumped the spot kick past the keeper for 4. He then completed his hat-trick after being released with another excellent through ball to finish past the keeper.
Rich added one from the right side as it seemed we had more attackers than they had defenders, curling a low shot into the corner for what I think is his first goal for the Lions. Gregg smashed in the 7th before half time after Gary and Scott had their efforts blocked.
To be fair, it wasn't entirely one-way traffic, but Castle Hill had only one effort of note: they were very unlucky to see a close-range shot beat Paige but come off the underside of the bar then bounce out to be cleared away. Things got a little feisty when their main creative player, the Harry-Styles look-alike, took out Dale with a hefty challenge. Dale reacted but not quite as much as Gary who got himself booked. It was never in any danger of boiling over though and half time probably couldn't have come quick enough for the youngsters.
JP made the first round of several changes at half time and Castle Hill came out with literally nothing to lose. We were still on top though, as despite seeing more attacks at our end, they never really amounted to anything. That said, the goals dried up for us too and it wasn't until deep into the half that we got another opportunity to go further ahead with a second penalty decision in our favour. Gary once more stepped up, but this time sent his spot kick so far over it disappeared into the bush some way behind the goal. We were making plenty of chances but not taking them and if we didn't have the 7 goal cushion, we might have been getting slightly nervous. Happily Gregg got on the end of cross to get on the score sheet again then Nathan wrapped things up with a low effort.
So, onwards to round four of the County Cup for the first time in the Lions’ history. The game will be at home to Barnes Albion and will incredibly be only the second home fixture we have ever had in the County Cup. And yes, we did win the other one.
