SPARTAN SOUTH MIDLANDS LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
BALDOCK TOWN 1 LONDON LIONS 0
London Lions were left to rue missed chances in a game they should have had wrapped up after 25 minutes as they went down by the narrowest of margins against Baldock Town.
The hosts made them pay for their generosity, scoring the luckiest and cruellest goal conceivable. It was the kind of goal that would be scored once in every 50,000 attempts.
Sam Shooter, Max Kyte and Rick Jacobson all had glorious chances to put the game to bed before Baldock had a chance to get out the blocks. But each one-on-one opportunity was missed or saved.
Baldock forged ahead against the run of play with 15 minutes of the first-half remaining. A deflected cross from wide on the Lions left looped into the air and what looked like a ball harmlessly falling out of play, somehow fell like a stone into the Lions goal, leaving everyone except the joyous home support baffled.
It was a cruel blow given Lions' superiority early on, but it was a lesson that in football you must take your chances when they present themselves.
Andy Glynne continued to find his passing range galvanising each Lions attack, but in truth Lions were deficient in that little spark needed to create that much needed goal.
No-one could fault Lions endeavour, they worked hard, battled and were always in the game, they just couldn't find that bit of magic to unlock the gate.
Baldock had two good opportunities to seal victory in the closing stages, but they were equally wasteful in front of goal.
At the final whistle you could sense the disappointment in the Lions ranks, they knew the early missed chances proved costly in the end.
Deflated Lions boss Tony Gold commented: "The performance was solid and at no time did it look like we were in trouble.
"Unfortunately, having created three super chances and not taking them, we got our backsides slapped with a moment of pure cruelty - it was one of those that if the fella tried again 50,000 times he couldn't repeat.
"Again, there were many positives to take from the match- 16-year-old Nicky Barnett got another full 90 minutes in senior football under his belt and the team showed good fighting and battling qualities on a difficult hard and bumpy pitch.
"We do lack that spark which the likes of Josh Kennet, Charlie Kasler and Benji Weinberger can give you, but in the end we had the chances to win the game and ultimately paid the penalty for not taking them."
LIONS: Ross Weinrabe, Tony Gold, David Souter, Guy Morris, Nick Barnett, Will Beresford, Rick Jacobson (sub: Omri Brinner), Andy Glynne, Max Kyte, Zac Rose, Sam Shooter,
