South Midlands League Division One
Sun Postal Sports 2 London Lions 4
A double from Guy Morris and one apiece from Ricky Engleman and Dean Nyman gave Lions a fully deserved 4-2 victory over Sun Postal Sports.
Lions continued a great run of form with a resounding away win courtesy of two bullet headers from Morris, an opportunist strike from Engleman and a stunning goal from Nyman.
Two late Sun Postal goals lifted the home side but Lions dominated 75 minutes of the game to move into the top half of the table.
Lions took the lead on 20 minutes, Morris reacting first to a Josh Kennet corner to head home from eight yards.
The goal settled the away side and Lions began to play some fantastic one and two-touch football leaving their opponents chasing shadows at times.
Just as Lions were growing in confidence, they were dealt a real blow as keeper Dan Lee pulled his hamstring following a great save to deny Tom Turomey. David ‘the cat’ Soutar went from centre forward to keeper with Matt Stock being introduced wide to replace the injured Lee.
It took Lions a few moments to adjust but within 10 minutes they doubled their lead. Morris once again used his head to good effect to score his second goal of the game once again from another Kennet corner.
Time was soon called on an interesting half with Lions in full control of proceedings even with the loss of their keeper.
With the fog descending, Lions started the second-half where they left off in the first, on top and searching for a third goal.
Lions stretched their lead to 3-0 as Engleman notched his third goal in six games after Kennet’s shanked pass come shot fell to him and he stabbed the ball home past a hapless Simon Green.
With 30 minutes remaining Ben Ellis replaced the hard working Engleman and on 70 minutes Lions racked up a stunning forth goal courtesy of something special from skipper Dean Nyman. Cutting in from the left and 25 yards from goal, he lashed home an unstoppable long-range shot.
Moving into the last 15 minutes 16-year-old Michael Kenley replaced Nyman up front as Lions looked to close out the game.
Two late Sun Postal goals took a little shine off what was actually a very workmanlike performance with plenty of quality but it was another three very important points.
Summing up his sides recent run of good form, Lions manager Tony Gold said: "This game is all about consistency. It is no coincidence whatsoever that our results have improved since I have had a much greater commitment from the players.
"Today we worked hard from front to back and got what we deserved.
"We kept the ball well in the right areas, got the defensive side of our game right and played when we could. It was a job well done.
"It was pleasing to score from a couple of corners today as normally we are on the receiving end of conceding them, but Guy ‘Franco’ Morris got his head in the right place twice and scored two important goals at important times.
"Credit to Sun Postal as they played until the end and made life uncomfortable for us especially the final 15 minutes.
"However, the most pleasing thing for me today was that we were a really strong unit defensively and I was delighted with the unity and the players hunger to get the win."
Lions: Dan Lee (sub: Matt Stock), Ben Lampert, Adam Myeroff, Guy Morris, Kyle Bentwood, Sam Sloma, Andy Glynne, Josh Kennet, Ricky Engleman (sub: Ben Ellis 70), David Soutar, Dean Nyman (sub: Michael Kenley 75)
MOM: Myeroff
