But Landesberg was not too concerned by the 2-1 defeat by Ampthill Town at Rowley Lane in their Spartan South Midland League opener, nor by the midweek defeat by the same score at Arlesey Town in the first round of the League Challenge Trophy.

“The fact is that we played really well in both matches, but  the 10 days off for us in Budapest really took its toll.

“Against Ampthill we had a great first half and could easily have been three or four-nil up by half-time.

“We were 1-0 up at half-time through an Austin Lipman goal and  he might have had another four himself, but we missed good chances.

“The problem was we ran out of legs in the second half and allowed Ampthill back into the game, though goalkeeper Nathan Bloohn, one of the heroes of the U18 gold winning team, in Budapest, played really well, as did 17-year-old Eytan Milan, who had his first start for Lions. He had two or three really good chances but was unlucky.”

Lions went down again 2-1 at Arlesey Town in the League Trophy, but again Landesberg was happy with the performance of his team.

“Again we played well, but we still have a lot of regular  players missing. However, it was an encouraging performance and another youngster getting his chance, Rafi Zanet, 17 was outstanding.

“Of course it was a difficult match because Arlesey are a Premier Division side.“

Jake Furman scored for Lions as Landesberg and his team prepared to get their first points in the league table with this weekend’s match at Wodson Park.