Zion FC finished their title winning season in style, by maintaining their unbeaten status with a 7-3 victory over The G.A. David Jones grabbed a hat-trick, while Tommy Powell and Matt Emerson scored a brace each.
The game started in bizzare fashion, as the whereabouts of Zion defender Tony Dain was a mystery and the referee blew the whistle with Zion down a man. In the eight minutes of a player shortage Zion conceded twice. Two well worked goals which used the man advantage gave The G.A the lead. When Dain did appear Zion got down to business. Matt Emerson struck home brilliantly after good work by Tommy Powell. Powell then linked up with Jones, the pair characteristically made G.A's defence look non-existent with one touch passing that culminated with an open goal tap in for Jones. Zion then took control of the game as Powell tucked home a neat finish after showing great tenacity. Matt Emerson then made it 4-2 to the Lions striking home from distance and finding the bottom corner. Emerson's passing and movement was applaudable and his hard work in defensive situations was also an asset to the side. Dain and Winter were also on good form. Great svaes and last ditch tackles prevented Zion from having a lesser advantage going into the break.
The second half was a calmer affair, with the wind causing both sides a degree of difficulty. Zion played the neater football and could have scored on several occasions, but such is their style that they perhaps overplayed looking for the perfect goal, that they do acutally achieve so frequently which means their fans never grow frustrated by their over-exhuberance. The G.A were chasing the game, and used their keeper as an advanced outfield player during periods of possession. This gave Zion the chance to punish on the counter, and when Powell dispossessed the keeper he had an empty net to fire the ball into. The G.A did then strike back with a swift attack that ended in a good finish from inside the Zion area. Winter was making some decent saves when claled upon. However, G.A's Andy Robotham was by far the busier keeper, and he was picking the ball out of the net again when Jones ran onto Powell's throw in and flicked the ball passed the keeper and then tapped home when the all rebounded off the post. Jones then finished the scoring with another easy tap-in after Tony Dain saw his shot saved by the keeper. 7-3 was a fair reflection of a game that Zion dominated, as soon as Tony Dain sauntered onto the pitch, that is!
Tony Dain was keen to defend his lateness after the game, "I arrived at the stadium way before anyone else, and was in the warm up room, but unfortunately lost track of time and didn't realise that the lads had gone to pitch. We won the game so we can laugh about it now, but had we lost maybe I would have been in trouble with the gaffer." Powell was keen to talk about the season ands the victory rather than answer questions about his defender, "We can take great belief from this season, and this match as well. It was a great performance by everyone and now we can focus on maintaining our form next season." Zion FC fans celebrated for hours after the match as the club organised a lock-in style title winning party. They will be hoping their side can continue to show great form next season.
