After last week's goal-shy outing, the Lions got back on the scoresheet in emphatic fashion with a a second-half glut against Hersham Rangers. That familiar strike force of Gary and Scott rolled back the years to remind us of their free-scoring glory days, which hopefully are not done yet.
There was a last minute change of venue to Molesey Hurst after our allocated pitch at Weston Green was declared unplayable due to rain. Our team eventually turned up and though we were still missing our top scorers Nelson and Max, we welcomed back up front Gary and Scott, who are now pretty much Lions legends. Ryan also made his second appearance of this season on the left side of our usual central three in defence. After some issues with getting the goal nets anchored down (the oppo forgot their pegs, so we had to use twigs!) the game got underway.
Within a minute, Gary and Scott had combined to give us the lead. Gary chased down a defender on the left side, won the ball and fed the ball inside to Scott, who bore down on goal and finished with nicely high past the keeper.
Great start for us, what came next wasn't so great. From their first corner on our left, their diminutive, nippy striker found himself all alone just inside the area. A clearing header came out to him and he had the time and poise to line up a volley that looped over our unfortunate goalie and Mike on the line.
The game settled down a bit after that hectic start but though we were playing decently, we weren't at our best. There were a few loose balls and we seemed to be especially guilty of giving the ball away through ill-judged and ill-timed flicks and attempts at "worldy" passes. Hersham also seemed to be winning more second balls, stronger in the tackles and their passing play wasn't bad either. Like us though, their final ball was lacking in quality.
It was still fairly even, so it wasn't against the run of play when we took the lead again. A long punt down the left hand touchline from Mike had Gary chasing it down along with their defender. He managed to keep it in play, rounded then accelerated away from the defender, keeping possession all the way to the area where he slipped it past the keeper to put us ahead.
We were pegged back again when their left winger who gave us problems throughout the game, pinged a waist-high cross from the byline across the goal. Ryan had gone with their big centre-forward and seemed well-placed to clear it but his attempted volley was mistimed. The ball fell right into the path of the striker and he put it past the keeper from point blank range.
Scott and Gary combined again to put the ball in the back of the net but Gary was flagged offside and despite vocal objections, the goal didn't stand. So we went in level with a bit of a mixed bag of a first-half performance, perhaps slightly unlucky to not be ahead, but certainly not helping ourselves with some below-par play at times.
We started the second half much better with both the passing and tackling a bit sharper. As the quality of our play improved, so too did our control of the game. After an opening 10 minutes or so of trading attacks that came to nothing, we pulled away with three goals without reply.
Mussa started a move by winning possession off their winger then feeding the ball inside to our midfield. The ball was moved through the centre to our left and popped up to Harry around the area. Mussa must have been screaming for a return ball, because he was also up there all by himself on the right and after what seemed like an age, Harry squared the ball to him. Mussa had time to trap the ball, pull up his socks, do a couple of stretches, have a cuppa...well, maybe not all of that, but he might as well have done as time seemed to slow to a crawl before he pinged away a shot that curled away from the keeper into the corner.
Bache then unselfishly laid on a pass for Gary when he had the opportunity to shoot himself and Gary put the chance away well for his second. Ahmed distinguished himself with an excellent tackle to foil their winger bearing down on goal in one of the few moments of danger Hersham produced in the second half. From the resulting goal kick, there was a lovely passage of play where Bache knocked it onto Harry who moved it onto Scott, with the latter unleashing a shot that the goalie could only parry away. It fell kindly into Rob's path and he finished clinically to the goalie's left.
Hersham had a couple of shots on goal in that period. One from our right just inside the box was tipped over at full stretch by the keeper and they hit the outside of the post with a header from a corner. They put another header in the back of the net from a corner but the ref had already blown for a push.
Their lone second half goal was a bit of a fluke and slightly embarrassing for our keeper. The scorer of their first got on the end of a flick-on from the big striker and made it to the byline to get a cross in. Watched all the way by the keeper, it looked for certain that it was going out of play over the bar, but the curl kept it in and it actually dropped and rolled along the bar then underneath it to fall just inside the line. Was still trying to work out what had happened as their striker was getting the ball up for the restart.
Hersham immediately repaid that slight misjudgement with a defensive mix-up of their own. Mussa hoofed a long ball upfield in Harry's general direction. With two defenders around the ball, there looked like being no way for him to latch onto it, but the Hersham players somehow managed to get in each others way and left Harry with a free run on goal to knock in our sixth.
The scoring and his hat-trick was completed by Scott's lovely back-heel releasing Gary down our left. He held off the defenders and rounded the oncoming keeper to leave himself the simple task of walking the ball in.
Our defence was excellent in the second half, but in the wars a bit today. Ahmed had to come off after a knock to the head then come back on for Boan after he got injured. Our keeper strained his thigh with all the rubbish goal kicks so Jamie stepped in between the sticks for the last few minutes. In the end, it was a comprehensive victory and the second half goal-fest reflected our improved performance. Good to see Scott and Gary back in the team and amongst the goals and this result gives us a lift ahead of next week's County cup match against our own Division 1's Ewell Athletic.
