PETER MORRISON TROPHY ROUND ONE
NORSTAR LONDON RAIDERS B 1 MACCABI LONDON LIONS SPARTANS 7
A multi-talented yet ultimately young Lions Spartans team cruised to a 7-1 victory over Division One Raiders B.
With an average squad age of just short of 20, Lions cruised to a comfortable victory. Whilst Lions took a few minutes to adjust to the 3G playing surface, they were quickly into their stride with Benji Weinberger cutting in from the right hand side, and hitting a good left-foot shot into the bottom corner of the net.
Weinberger added another with his left-foot shortly after. Jon Kurrant, who had marshalled the Lions midfield, added a third goal before half time, Lions probably should have had one or two more, but in fairness Norstar never dropped their heads once, and kept battling away, perhaps being a little unfortunate not to have got at least one goal before the break.
The Lions' players were not happy with their own first half performance, and it didn't need much to be pointed out from manager Andy Landesberg. The first 20 minutes of the second half improved considerably, with Lions adding two more from a Max Kyte penalty and a good finish from the right hand side from James Belchak.
The goal of the game was scored from Norstar's Jacob Gold, who hit a great 25-yard shot on the half volley, into the top right corner of the net. Making it 1-5.
Lions weren't impressed, and seemed to kickstart into life again. Belchak added another from a similar position as before, quickly followed by Lions seventh from Max Kyte.
The game seemed to die away from there, although Norstar never gave up for one minute. The game was played in a good spirit, well ref'd by Mark Jacobs.
Lions manager Andy Landesberg was happy with his young teams result, but a little disappointed in the last 20 minutes performance. Landesberg told JC Sport: "I'm happy to be in the next round in a game that was potentially a banana skin, and I was pleased that he was able to use Danny Caro's pre-match prediction as a focus and motivation of what perhaps people were thinking, or maybe hoping for.
"We will have to perform better if we are going to make the progress we are looking for in this cup."
