MGBSFL DIVISION ONE
ATHLETIC BILBAUM 1 MACCABI LONDON LIONS B 3

Lions B started the season in style, with Benji Weinberger, Ben Winters and Ed Brafman earning them maximum points at Bilbaum.

Perfect sunny weather for the start of the new MGBSFL 16/17 season that saw Lions go to Chase Lodge to play Athletic Bilbaum for their first game in Divison One.

Manager Sam Marchant and his side were looking eager and excited to get going for the new season.

As the game kicked off both teams started slowly with some sloppy passing in the midfield and not being able to convert the final ball.

After the first 20 minutes Lions started to get back to basics playing the ball around nicely with Nick Barnett, Jake Rinsler and Adam Abadi pulling the strings in the middle.

The first chance of the morning fell to Michael Kenley, great play from Ben Winters as he ran through the Bilbaum defence and put in a cross, only to see Kenley pull his half volley wide.

Winters continued to terrorise the Bilbaum defence and went through on goal only to see his shot saved by the goalkeeper.

The first goal of the afternoon came to a Lions team who were looking lazy in the first game of the season. A ball played up to the big man Kenley up top, beautifully brought down, he turned and played a through ball to WEINBERGER who calmly slotted home for Lions to calm some first game nerves.

Marchant and Kingston finally looked less angry after the goal, however straight from Bilbaum kick-off, some sloppy Lions defending led to an easy tap-in for Bilbaum striker TOBY MANN for the equaliser.

The Bilbaum goal gave the Lions team a wake-up call. Marchant made a substitution, bringing Dom Feldman on to help bring some more creativity in the final third.

And that’s exactly what he did. Beating two Bilbaum defenders, Feldman shot only to see it saved by the keeper and out for a corner. However, the resulting set-piece led to Lions going 2-1 up before the half-time break. Winters delivered an inswinging Beckham-esque cross and captain BRAFMAN was on hand to head into the bottom corner.

A strong half-time team-talk from Marchant telling the boys he wanted to see more pressing and more simple passing.

Lions went out in the second half and did exactly what the manager asked, however they failed to convert the chances that they created.

In the 75th minute Zac Rose played a long ball up in the air, only to be fumbled by the Bilbaum keeper – WINTERS capitalised and slotted home to ensure a Lions win and three points in the first game.

Despite the victory, Lions boss Samuel Marchant insists there is plenty of room for improvement.

"We got the victory today but there wasn’t much else to rave about," Marchant told JC Sport.

"Coming off the summer break, we had a good pre-season but that wasn’t reflected today.

"The performance was a bit tired and lazy but we hopefully can pick up the pace in the coming weeks and really push on and string victories together.

"The lads know that we were below-par today and at 2-1, we could have easily conceded and the game would’ve been different. However, we got the three points, and after everything, that is all that truly matters."

Baums co-manager Nick Shinder told JC Sport: "With many absentees it was always going to be a tough game but our solid structure made it difficult for Lions.

"However, we conceded two cheap goals from set-pieces which was very frustrating. We nearly came level towards the end of the second half but it was not meant to be.

"We move on and look towards our next game against Faithfold A."