Same old story of the Lions failing to put away good chances and getting punished for it. Even worse, we've now suffered the embarrassment of losing to the bottom club in our division who had not won a game all season until now.
Line up:
Dorian (GK)
Phil (RB), Simon (CB), Matt R (CB), Dale (LB)
Kyle (RM), Danny (CM), Brett (CM), Lee (LM)
Jon (CF), Scott (CF)
Decent first half, where we made a shedload of good chances, but unbelievably, it was yours truly who got the first goal. Kyle took a corner which went to the near post where Scott brought it down and tried to shoot, but it was blocked, so he laid the ball off to me as I just happened to be standing there and I just kicked the ball into the net to finally get my first goal for the Lions
We weren't in front too long though as our habit of scoring against ourselves continued. The oppo had an attack down our left and their winger pinged a ball across the face of the penalty area. Danny was running back to goal and the ball hit his foot midstride and looped lazily over the stranded Dorian to dip just underneath the bar.
We had chances to go ahead in the first half with Scott having a couple of one-on-ones, Dale (who had an excellent game) making a great run from the back, only to shoot narrowly wide and Jon and Brett coming close with shots. Frustratingly however, the half ended all square.
In the second half, the oppo came right at us really raiseing their game and putting us under a lot of pressure and the truth is, we had no answer to it. We made too many mistakes and and gave the ball away cheaply. They went into the lead when Simon got robbed of possession midway into our half and the ball got pinged out to our right. Their player took it early to lob Dorian as he was rushing out.
Their third came from a throw in, where their winger showed good persistence in making it to the byline despite the attentions of two of our guys then pulling back and curling a shot into the far corner.
We simply had no response and despite still having half an hour to play, showed little urgency in trying to get back into the game. Dave and Adam came on for Danny and myself (I was knackered) and we did think Scott had scored from a corner. The guys were adamant that the ball was well over the line before the defender cleared it away, but the ref never gave it. To add insult to injury, he missed a bltant handball in the penalty area too.
Brett pulled one back in the last couple of minutes after a good run and lay-off from Scott, but in truth we deserved the defeat after missing all those chances in the first half and for the lack of spirt and quality for much of the second.
Next week sees a double header against New Prince and if we play like we did in the second half, we will get shat on. We need to get back to the level we attained in the second half of our first match against the leaders and quick.
