HERTS COUNTY CHALLENGE CUP FINAL

MACCABI LONDON LIONS 1 ST ALBANS CITY YOUTH 0

Playing on a dry and bumpy pitch at the Herts County ground, the Lions coped impressively throughout against the physical St Albans City.

After settling down, they began playing their expansive brand of football and went close early on through efforts from Jesse Tapnack, Rafi Burns and Nathan.

The Lions continued to dominate throughout the second half, with the midfield of Luc Levene, Amit Waiss, and Jesse Tapnack playing some excellent football. Further efforts from Zan Appleson-Fidler and a ferocious Zack Miller free-kick were expertly saved.  

After having little to do in the Lions goal, Sam Jacobs was called into action with less than 10minutes to go when St Albans were awarded a hotly-disputed penalty.  Jacobs helped tip the ferocious straight down the middle shot onto the crossbar.

From that momentous save the Lions went down the other end through a typically forceful Shraga Simons mazy run, beating four players before laying it off to Zan Appleson-Fidler.  His shot was parried onto the bar before Nathan rounded off his man-of-match performance by coolly slotting home from six yards, to rapturous cheering from the travelling Lions fans.

The rest of the match passed off without any further alarms thanks to the defence of Charlie Gordon, Shraga Simons, Ezra Aaron, Nathan Mann and Charlie Dagul. They were superbly marshalled by captain Zack Miller, and after four long minutes of injury time the whistle blew and the Lions boys began celebrating their landmark victory.

LIONS: Ezra Aaron, Zan Appleson-Fidler, Rafi Burns, Charlie Dagul, Charlie Gordon, Sam Jacobs, Luc Levine, Nathan Mann, Zack Miller, Josh Nathan, Shraga Simons

Jesse Tapnack, Amit Waiss. Co-managers: Andy Miller and Steve Gordon