The Lions came from a goal down early in the first half to get back to winning ways in our first cup tie of the season.
After a week off due to lack of player availability, the Lions were back in action for the first round of the Surrey FA Lower Junior County Cup. Once again, we only just managed to get a team out: those first couple of games when we had a match-day squad of 16 players to choose from already seem a long time ago.
The guys who were there though, put in a battling performance, even if we started off a bit sluggishly. Maybe it was the week off, but we seemed off the pace for the first 20 minutes and struggled to establish ourselves in the game. Passes went astray, straight to the opposition, or when they did get to the intended player, simply rolled under their foot. Some good individual play up front by by Max, Nelson and Ben made chances but we weren't the fluent and hard-working team that we had been in the first two games.
The oppo looked dangerous going forward and were showing the fluency we were lacking. They didn't create many chances in the first half but they did score from their first real effort. We didn't clear our lines from a low corner and after a couple of blocked shots, the ball fell to a guy all alone in the area and he tucked it away comfortably.
That seemed to wake us up a bit and we stepped up the work-rate. Nick S hit a sweet drive from the left-side that had the keeper playing statues, but rebounded off the inside of the post. It came straight back out to Nick but he couldn't adjust his body enough to stop the next shot going high and wide. Max and Nelson had sights of goal but were denied by a defence that kept their keeper well-protected.
That is until the latter stages of the half when two goals in a minute turned the tie around. First the ball was worked down the left to Harry who drifted the ball via a deflection into the air around the penalty spot. The keeper came out to claim it but Nelson got there just in front of him to head it down into the corner for the equaliser.
Max then put us into the lead with a fantastic piece of tenacious play that typified our renewed effort. He chased down a poor pass from one defender to another, blocking the intended clearance then knocking the ball forward to go one-on-one with the keeper. He then smashed the ball under the keeper to put us ahead.
We finished the half strongly and could have extended the lead before the break, but after a fairly poor start, we gladly took the slender lead into the break.
The second half saw more chances being created at both ends. Paul made a great save when one-on-one, with the striker trying and failing to lob him. The Cricketers made ample use of their wingers, trying to get behind us, with Mussa and Nick S having to work hard to stop the crosses. They caused us problems from corners too, with a couple of their headers only just clearing our bar.
Their goalie had to come off as he was starting to feel some adverse effects of a collision he had had with Nelson in the first half. Their main striker went in goal and it was his replacement who got their equaliser. They passed and moved their way through the centre, a well timed run beat our offside trap and a well placed shot beat Paul.
We were only pegged back for a few minutes as a wonderful team move of our own down our left resulted in Max nudging the ball to Ben who seemed to be almost taking the ball away from goal on the right before swinging his leg and body round to drive the ball low into the opposite corner. A fine first goal of the season for Ben, as just reward for the effort and near misses of his campaign so far.
Being a cup tie, the opposition gave everything they had in the last twenty minutes to get their second equaliser, but we probably came closer to scoring as gaps started to open up in their defence. Max set up Nelson who looked like he could just pass it either side of the keeper for his second, but the block came in to send the chance begging. Their stand-in keeper made an excellent save low to his right from erm, someone. A couple of shots went just wide, a few others went horribly wide and we really should have been out of sight with time to spare.
We had a slight scare when one of their players was bearing down on goal, but Nath came in with a great tackle to clear the danger. Deep into injury time (of which there was plenty, due to the issues with their goalie) the oppo were throwing everyone forward for their corner. The ball broke in the box and was hoofed forward up by Ed to Nelson in the oppo half, pretty much all by himself. As it was the last minute, it looked like he was going to take it into the corner, until he changed his mind, headed to the goal and somehow managed to slip a shot between the keeper and his near post that nestled in the opposite side of the goal.
No time even for a restart as the ref blew his whistle to confirm our place in the second round. A bit of a wobbly start but massive positives in coming from behind to win a tough game and getting back in the goals after our last game.
