SPARTAN SOUTH MIDLANDS LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

LONDON LIONS 4 SOUTHALL 6

At 0-4 and then 1-5 down, with barely half an hour played, this looked like being a seriously long night for Lions against the high-flyers.  

But in a true testimony to the spirit instilled in this young side by Andy Landesberg and Steve Grenfell, not only did they not give up but they actually took the game to their opponent and it was the visitors who were clearly the more relieved to hear the final whistle.

Southall, to be fair, showed their class early on but a couple of lapses by Lions certainly made things easier for the visitors. From the hosts perspective, it’s best to gloss over that first half hour as other than a penalty, they were by a country mile second best.

In fact had it not been for two stunning saves by goalkeeper Dan Lipman, it could have been a whole lot worse.

Although Lions pulled another goal back on the stroke of half-time, the fact that Southall scored their sixth and then proceeded to hit the woodwork for the third and fourth times of the game within 10 minutes of the restart it seemed nothing had changed.

But when Jake Furman was found in space on the edge of the box and crashed home a great finish for Lions’ third the tide noticeably turned.

Suddenly it was Lions who were quicker to everything and were creating openings almost at will. Southall were of course a threat on the break and it took another tremendous Lipman save and the woodwork again to stop them adding to their tally.

Yet Lions seemed the more likely to score next. Austin Lipman was ghosting into space, and when he curled a trademark right-footer beyond the keeper into the far corner to make it 6-4 it really was game on. Surely they couldn’t….could they?

The hosts certainly gave it their all and had chances – it was the Southall keeper who was plunging low to save from Lipman and then pulling off a fabulous save from a Charlie Kasler header from a  corner.

Lions pushed and gave it their all, looking stronger and fitter than their opponents in the closing stages but the glorious comeback wasn’t to be and the side had to make do with knowing that from a position of despair they gave the league leaders one hell of a shock and a very uncomfortable night.

Roll on Saturday – that same second half and FA Vase glory is certainly on the cards.

LIONS: Dan Lipman, Adam Myeroff, Adam Lipman, Charlie Rubin, Alex Levack, Jake Furman, Adam Burchell, Austin Lipman, Charlie Kasler, Josh Shack, Sam Hamerton. Subs: Nick Landesberg, Jon Ellis, Jack Mattey, 

SCORERS: Furman 2, own goal, Lipman