Back to winning ways for the Lions, even if it was against the bottom-placed team who were the last team we managed to beat in any competition.
Line up:
Dorian (GK)
Dale (RB) Simon (CB) Matt R (CB) Julian (LB)
Dave (CM) JP (CM) Brett (CM)
Kyle (RF) Lee M (CF) Gary (LF)
The more observant of you will have noticed that this is the third time we've played Royal Oak Reserves in the League and may be wondering what that's all about. Apparently, the teams in our division are playing each other three times to prolong the season, which given the forecast weather over the next month, will probably mean us still finishing the league in June.
Anyway, after a reminder from Dave of our abysmal performance in the last game where we managed to create two chances with no return in the entire match we set about the RO's with a lot more energy. We definitely had the better of the first half, creating some very good chances. Lee had the majority of these, the first after only a few minutes with him clean through on goal but he put his effort wide. Some time later he was again put through but again failed to hit the target.
At the other end our defence were doing a good job containing their attackers and when they did get through, the balls they were putting in were easy claims for Dorian.
The action was moslty down their end, with their lino getting involved with a apparently dodgy offside decisions which after a while started to mount up and really get on the Lions' nerves. The usual suspects were fairly vocal in their protests and the ref had to have a quiet word on a number of occasions. The ref didn't help the mood by ignoring three quite blatant penalties all coming about as a result of Gary running through and being taken out. On the last one, even the dodgy lino flagged for the penalty but was totally ignored by the ref.
The oppo had one long range shot on target that was straight at Dorian and one that just went wide from a corner, but othger than that they showed very little in front of goal. We however, missed a load of chances with the keeper only having to make a couple of easy saves.
We should have been 4 or 5 up at half time but in the end we went in without a goal on the scoresheet. Good effort being put in by everybody with some quality football being worked, but nothing to show for it.
Second half was more of the same. Still the better side, but still not getting shots in on target. They had a very good chance when there striker got one-one one with Dorian but he got out a hand to slow the goalbound shot enough to be cleared away. The breakthrough for us then came in rather messy fashion.
A shot went in and the keeper dived forward and got hands to it, but didn't have it under control. Lee was in there making like difficult for him and poked the ball out to Brett who smashed it home. Their team were furious as they said the keeper had two hands on it, but from where I was stood, he never looked like he had it safe and the ref must have thought the same as the goal stood.
I came on for Kyle and soon after we got a second, another scramble in the six yard box with a couple of people trying to get shots in until it got cleared out to Dave on the edge who smashed a low drive into the bottom left corner.
A bit of breathing space but not for long. Danny came on for Dave and unfortunately he got dispossessed midway into our half by their midfielder who put in a quite lovely lob over Dorian. Game on again and although they still didn't threaten that much, we were starting to get nervy and it was a relief when the third goal went in. Lee got on the end of a through ball from JP and this time made no mistake to shoot past the grasping hands of the keeper.
Time for a bit of a comedy moment towards the end when Gary had to run over to their lino and make a sincere apology for politely questioning the impartiality of his decision-making, but we ran out deserved winners, taking the maximum 9 from 9 points of the RO reserves.
