The Lions recorded their first back-to-back wins in the League this season to reach double figures in points and start the long climb towards mid-table respectability. As good a result as last week's win against Oatlands was, this win was even more satisfying as it gave testament to the new-found resolve and battling spirit within the team.
Line-up:
Paige(GK)
Phil (RB), Simon (CB), Matt R (CB), Julian R (LB)
Ollie (CM), Dale (CM), Lee M(CM)
Kris (RF), Scott (CF), Gary (LF)
We got off to a good start again, with the midfield and forward players pressuring the ball and high up the pitch, stopping the oppo's attacks before they even started and creating chances from their mistakes. We were getting through their defence quite easily and though we were denied shooting chances on a couple of occasions by offside decisions not going our way, we still most of the first 20 minutes on the attack. We got a bit of a setback when the 7-goal hero of last week Gary came off early with a recurrence of an injury that's been plaguing him for some time now, but Kyle proved an able replacement.
The opening goal came from a corner ball that was diverted by Ollie's flick header at the near post to Dale, who showed quick feet to stab the ball home through the legs of the defender on the line from close range. It was no more than our early pressure deserved, but we seemed to take our foot off the gas for some reason and then it was us who were under the cosh. The oppo came into the game a bit more and it got really competitive in the middle of the park, with neither side making that many chances at the business ends of the pitch.
As so often seems to happen against this particular team, we seemed to be reaching ever more closely for the self-destruct button by playing ourselves into trouble and gifting them opportunities to get back into the game (some of you may remember the two own goals that were scored by JP and myself in the away fixture last season and the penalty I conceded in the home match). Scott lost the ball in our half which gave them a shot on goal out of nothing. I nearly allowed their striker to latch onto a weak backpass to Paige and we only just managed to scramble the ball clear. Even Simon almost got caught out dangerously close to our penalty area.
The coup de grace to our spell of madness, however, was delivered by Matt in another of those bizarrely suicidal moments we seem to love conjuring up at least once a match. I think it stemmed from a pass back from Julian to Simon, who didn't seem to expect it, but who then knocked it forward to Matt who was facing our goal. All three were well forward of our penalty area and there didn't seem to be any danger but for whatever reason that even Matt can't explain, he hoofed the ball first time back towards our goal right across our area. Back pass, clearance whatever it was, the ball went high and dropped invitingly down into the path of the onrushing oppo striker who probably couldn't believe his luck. To be fair, he met it first time with a wonderful low strike right into the far corner, pinging it in off the post. It really was one of those WTF? moments that could easily have knocked the stuffing out of us and left us vulnerable to more goals.
That never happened though as we saw it out until half time without too much incident that I can remember. The half-time team talk made the point that we'd done sod all since our goal, but the game was there for the taking.
Second half then and we began as we'd started the first. We made some good chances with Scott breaking free on one occasion to be denied by their keeper. Halfway into the second period, Julian and Scott made way for Adam and Gregg, making his competitive Lions debut. He didn't take long to make an impact, either. Gregg picked up the ball from close to the halfway line (can't remember who put it out there for him) and went on a run down the right hand side, cutting in to finish with a well place shot past the keeper.
We had another lead to protect and the game really started opening up. The oppo really came at us, but were leaving themselves vulnerable to the counter, especially with Gregg giving us some pace up front. He could have had a hat trick but was denied on both occasions by good one-on-one saves by the keeper. Lee went on a mazy run past at least three defenders and his resultant shot was deflected over the bar. We had a free kick that was spilled by the keeper and just bounced awkwardly enough for me as our closest player to not get shot in. I managed to retrieve the ball and get a cross in which was just headed over the bar.
At our end, it was all hands to the pumps. Matt made some great last ditch tackles to snuff out shooting chances, Paige took one in the face when he had to come out of the area to close down an attacker. The tackles started flying in and we were giving away a lot of free kicks in our half as we became ever more desperate for the game to finish. The oppo were coming so close to the equaliser with shots flying just wide of the post and players just failing to get a touch on balls across the face of the goal. With a few minutes to go, they had a corner where the ball dropped to their player a couple of yards out and Paige made a fantastic sprawling save to keep the shot out and then Kyle showed a cool head to get the ball away from danger.
Have to save the best for last though, as I got my moment of the season so far:). They brought a late substitute on and in stoppage time he was able to ping in a high ball from our left side that was looping over Paige into the goal. I was back there running towards the goal and managed to stretch my leg up to hook it away with the tips of my toes. There was no time to register how close we'd come to losing our lead because we immediately had to defend a corner, which was headed on by their Roger Daltrey look-alike for their goalscorer to volley just wide of the post. That was the last meaningful action of the game and the ref's whistle was a joy to hear.
As I said way back at the beginning of this (long) report, wins like this are so satisfying when we defend a lead like we did win the second half against a decent team who can punish you given half a chance. It was one of our best performances of the season so far and something we can take heart from for the rest of the campaign.
