SPARTAN SOUTH MIDLANDS LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
LANGFORD 3 LONDON LIONS 1

London Lions failed to build on their win at Bush Hill Rangers as they were punished for sloppy defending against Langford.

Inadequate defending and a failure to convert a host of glorious chances, was London Lions downfall on Saturday in a 3-1 defeat.

Lions produced another decent performance, certainly on par with the last three games and without question, created a number of glaring opportunities that could have won two games, but an inconsistency in finishing and a lack of discipline at the back proved costly.

In a nutshell, Lions were culpable for not securing what should have been another valuable three points. Chance after chance was created and after 25 minutes Lions should have been out of sight. Instead, and completely against the run of play, a lack of concentration and discipline in the Lions rearguard, presented the visitors with an early Christmas present and they were extremely grateful for the home sides generosity.

Lions recovered well from the shock and hit back instantaneously, converting the only chance of the eight which they crafted. Benji Weinberger showed great desire and tenacity to drive forward past several players before finishing coolly.

That coolness, composure and clinical vision was then sadly to abandon the Lions forward players. With the scores evenly balanced at one apiece going into the interval, although it was hard to believe given the opportunities Lions failed to take, the writing was clearly written on the wall, Langford were still very much in the game.

Lions failed to take heed of the warnings of becoming careless at the back following instructions at half-time from the management, and they found themselves 2-1 behind, yet again from a moment of negligent defending.

That setback didn't stop Lions from opening up Langford at will. Defensively the visitors were even more vulnerable than Lions, the difference was that Langford had punished Lions for their mistakes, whilst the home side continued to miss the target, see shots hit the post or watch the visiting keeper pull off great saves.

As Lions committed more players forward in desperation of finding that much needed equaliser, Langford found a break on the counter and put the game to bed with a third. Another valuable lesson learned about what happens in football if you don�t take your chances.

Lions joint-manager Tony Gold said: "If we are honest, based on the chances we created and a majority of the football played, there was only one team that deserved to win today. However, football is all about goals and if you don't score more than your opponents you can't win.

"Collectively the players will learn a lot from this defeat but they need to be nastier, more ruthless and clinical at both ends. In the first-half when we pressed forward and penetrated we looked very, very dangerous. We cut through them almost at will, but weren't clinical enough.

"We were hit by two sucker punches caused by our own doing which to be fair has been a problem for us all season. We did more than enough to win the game, but in the end were punished for not taking our chances and being loose in possession in dangerous defensive areas which proved costly, at any level of football you have to take your chances.

"We have to do what we do well and do it better than the opposition we are playing. If we do that in the remaining 25 games we will be okay.

"We take each game one at a time, we have no choice that is how it is. Today was about not converting and giving away some dreadful goals, the players were prepared and played no different to last Wednesday in what was a good win, we move on to Southall."