The Lions missed a host of first half chances in a tight game that got increasingly fractious in the second half. Goals from Davy and Dan added to Max's first late first half strike were just enough to edge out Dynamo who had their own chances to take the match but were superbly kept out by debutant keeper Nader.
For only the second time that I can remember, the Lions had to play a competitive game without an official ref allocated by the League. In the interests of getting the fixture played, it was agreed that the Dynamo manager would ref the first half and I would ref the second. It was a heck of a lot easier reffing the first half...
Our newly signed keeper Nader, was called into action within 20 seconds of his debut starting as he got down to his right to palm away an early shot. We broke from the subsequent corner and Nath found himself in front of an open goal but as the cross came in, he couldn't get enough on it to divert it inside the post.
Other good chances came our way as we started so much better than we had done in previous weeks. Harry put a header just wide from a corner and Max had a couple of efforts saved. At the other end, Nader got down well to save a header from a corner and we survived a bit of a goalmouth scramble on another occasion.
We got the crucial breakthrough just before the 45 minute mark, when Dan and Max put together a lovely collection of passes between them in and around the box. Max then finished it off by firing a shot across the keeper into the far corner.
For some unfathomable reason, we did play an extra 3 minutes for the first half, but neither side could take advantage in that time, which was probably just as well.
Within 2 minutes of the restart we had doubled our lead when Davy collected the ball on the edge of the Dynamo 'D' and on the turn, launched a looping shot over the keeper that looked in from the moment it left the ground.
Being the reigning Division 1 and Lower Junior County Cup champions, Ditton are definitely no mugs and they really took the game to us after that. They attacked us down the channels, winning lots of corners that we were scrambling to get away. They eventually got their reward when they got down our left flank and pinged in a low cross that was relatively easy for their guy to prod past Nader's reach.
We restored our two-goal lead soon after, when Nick S put in Dan with a ball down the left. Dan cut inside and curled his shot into the far bottom corner for his second of the season.
They then had a penalty when Rob illegally interrupted the run of their nippy little attacker just inside the area. This was routinely dispatched and the Lions then had to see out the game as Dynamo tried desperately to get the equaliser. Aside from a free kick that was well gathered, the defence held firm and Dynamo were reduced to wayward long range efforts as the game came to a close.
In amongst the actual footballing action of the second half was a whole shedload of aggro and silliness from both sides as the tension of the match started getting to people. Tackles flew in and tempers flared, not helped by the stand-in referee frankly making some things up as he went along. Not a great experience and the last time I will ever ref a game.
At the end of the day though, it was a close match between two evenly matched sides and on this particular occasion, it went the Lions' way. After 3 games, we have now beaten our entire points tally for the whole of the 2013/14 season when we were last in Division 1, so we're already setting a new benchmark.
Next up is another tough game against Double H in what it is turning out to be a very competitive division. If we can get off to the same kind of start as we did this week, we will be in with more than a good chance of getting the right result again.
