The Lions broke their goal drought and with it their short losing run with late goals in both halves. Combined with a first clean sheet for months, this gave us our first win over Albion in 7 attempts over three seasons now. It was a fantastic team effort especially in defence, where we've been severely tested recently and the scoreline probably doesn't do justice to our domination in terms of chances created.
We did have some pre-game faffage, as seems to be the theme against Albion now, though all entirely of our own making. The wrong kit (red which completely clashes with Albion's shirts) was picked up by the Nick H, deputising for Nath on that particular duty so he had to go back to the launderette. Yours truly got stuck in goal again when it became clear that our goalie from last season wasn't turning up and the new one wasn't available. And no goalie kit or gloves in the red kit either...
With all that though, Nick got the blue kit to the pitch pretty quickly, I got my kit and gloves, we were only a few minutes late for kick off and it even stopped raining, so it was all good. We made a great start to the game too, immediately on the front foot and looking solid all over the pitch in our 4-3-3 formation. The main thing was to keep it tight at the back but up front the triumvirate of Dom, Max and Dan were creating chances at will. Dan got a few sighters in early on, with hist shots fizzing wide. Max had a header tipped over and Dom's shot when one-on-one was blocked by the keeper.
Rob and Harry were also getting in on the goalmouth action, with Rob just unable to divert a low cross from the left inside the post. In a frantic few seconds in the Albion area, Max, Rob and Harry all had shots blocked by the keeper or a defender as we peppered the opposition goal. Max and Harry also had shots come off the post and we really should have been 4 or 5 up in the first half hour. It was perhaps a sign that our recent scoring difficulties were starting to haunt us as the ever more presentable chances were being wasted and we looked increasingly desperate to get the goal.
At the other end, Albion were surprisingly limited in attack, and only had 3 shots of note on target, all of which were relatively comfortable for even me to deal with. We defended pretty well too, cutting down drastically on the mistakes that got us turned over the last time we played them.
It would only have taken one decent through ball or a lucky break for Albion to go one up and make us curse our wastefulness in front of goal but just like our game against Ditton, it was us who got the breakthrough in the last minute of the half. After yet another attempt had been blocked off, Harry retrieved the ball on the left, turned and cut infield before shooting across the keeper to finally give us the lead we deserved.
Due to the late kick off it was a very quick turnaround, with the main concern for the Lions to keep the intensity and focus - and therefore the lead - for at least the first five minutes. Albion improved their general play after the break but still without really creating many chances. Their only actual second-half shot on target came from their front man beating the goalie to a through ball down the middle and poking it goalwards. It was literally just a poke though, with no real power and although it was definitely going in, Mike was able to catch it just before the line and clear the immediate danger.
Their keeper distinguished himself with a couple of good stops when one-on-one and Dom had a goal ruled offside in a half where we found chances harder to come by than the first. But our efforts and quality were eventually rewarded 10 minutes from time when Nick H found Max in some space and he was able to turn and hammer a low shot just inside the post.
Albion's heads went down a bit and we held on for a morale-boosting win and a clean sheet that feels damn good after conceding so many goals recently. This may just be a Chairman's Shield game rather than a league game, but any win is more than welcome right now. Now we need to make sure that we take the hard work and great attitude that won us this game into the Castle Hill fixture next week.
