London Lions returned to the top of the Herts County Premier Division courtesy of an outstanding team performance that earned them a 1-0 victory at Park Street Village.
What made the win even more special was that it was in Park Street’s back yard, where no previous Lions team had been successful.
Lions produced their finest performance of the season and deserved the points against tough opposition.
They defended with heroic determination, attacked with poise and precision and eventually came out victorious, courtesy of an own goal from an undependable cross from Dean Nyman.
To a man, the Lions did their club proud, but the central defensive pairing of Guy Morris and Adam Myeroff stood out as the magnificent performers on a wonderful day for those with blue blood.
Manager Tony Gold kept the same formation but changed the shape slightly allowing for two defensive midfielders to give the side a little more bite against an aggressive side and Rob Glass and Andy Glynne excelled.
The visitors started the game with a flourish after several threatening attacks the best of which should have seen Adam Stolerman extended his recent impressive scoring spree. Myeroff then hit a rasping 25-yard pile-driver, forcing the Park Street keeper to make an excellent save.
With Lions keeping it solid at the back and Morris doing a great marking job on the dangerous Matty Newman, they continued to grow in confidence.
The hard work was eventually rewarded as the dangerous Dean Nyman broke down the right and delivered a perfect cross which a Park Street defender succeeded only in turning the ball into his own net, such was the quality of the delivery.
Lions best line of attack seemed to be down the right where Park Street were allowing Nyman so much space to exploit it was bordering on suicide. On two occasions all it needed was slightly better execution of pass from Glynne to release Nyman and he would have been clear on goal.
As half-time came, the Lions players must have been thinking we have been here before, leading 1-0 at the break and then somehow not finishing the job. But the loyal supporters needn’t have worried as the blue boys continued where they left off.
Park Street did muster two good chances but Danny Berg cleared the first off the line and keeper Matt Davis produced a wonderful save to keep the Lions lead alive.
The game should have been killed off as a contest with 20 minutes remaining but Glynne left his finishing boots at home as he wasted a great chance to double the lead. Stolerman then fired over when off balance and Glynne again shot wide.
The referee eventually blew his final whistle and Lions were rewarded for a hard working and very mature performance seeing them go back to the top of the Herts County Premier League.
Manager Tony Gold said: “I’m delighted with the win, delighted with the work rate and delighted with the manner in which the players applied themselves today.
“History has proved this is an extremely tough place to come and get results but I wasn’t prepared to sit back. I changed the shape slightly to allow our more attacking players to get in their faces from the first whistle and they were allowed to do that thanks to some outstanding defensive play from Glass, Myeroff, Morris, Glynne, Berg and Freeman.
“It was a good competitive game and for once the lads got what they deserved as they worked incredibly hard for this result.
Lions: Matt Davis, Andy Glynne (sub: Daniel Cole), Adam Myeroff, Guy Morris, Rob Glass, Daniel Stanton, Danny Berg, Aron Freeman, Dean Nyman, Lee Cash, Adam Stolerman (sub: Ben Lauffer). Sub not used: Ben Lampert