Bloom sends five-star Lions into round two

Lions lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, Jake Rinsler slotting in at centre-back, Daniel Green making his first start for Lions in the middle and Josh Bloom leading the line.

The game started well with Lions very much on the front foot, enjoying their football and passing the ball around. Catford looked like they were chasing shadows for the first 20 minutes.

Catford started the game with five at the back, allowing Lions to push on and attack them and that’s exactly what they did, in the 25th minute, some neat football ended up with Dom Feldman picking the ball up on the edge of the area, playing a lovely through ball to Bloom who coolly slotted home a lob over the keeper to give Lions and deserved 1-0 lead.

Lions continued to press hard and play good football after taking the lead and only five minutes after their first goal, they took a more convincing lead. A lovely corner swung in by Benji Weinberger, met by the head of Daniel Fattal, the ball was followed all the way by captain Ed Brafman who finally put the ball in the net.

It was all looking good for Lions, right up until the last kick of the first half, a corner from Catford and a lapse of concentration from Lions allowed Joel Lassman to get them right back in the game going into half-time.

Some wise words from Marchant at half-time; he told his pack to keep enjoying themselves and not lose concentration.

Lions continued to play good football in the second half, everyone keeping it simple and Marchant looked a happy man on the side-line – but knew they were only still a goal ahead.

Any nerves were put to ease when Feldman played a ball through to Bloom who restored their two-goal advantage.

Lions were looking really strong as Catford began to tire out and to make it worse, Marchant was ready to bring back on Benji Weinberger, the message was "kill the game off please".

And… Weinberger clearly listened as within 10 minutes of being back on, Jake Hyman set up Benji on the edge of the box and Weinberger stroked the ball into the net to seal the tie.

With only 10 minutes left on the clock, Lions continued to pass the ball around, Catford chasing shadows at this point.To rub some salt in the wounds, Bloom picked up the ball just on the edge of the box and scored a lovely goal in the bottom corner to put lions 5-1 up, put them in the hat for the next round, and of course complete his hat-trick.

Some outstanding performances on the day from Jake Rinsler playing centre-back and hat-trick hero Bloom, but the Maltesers this week went to Dom Feldman for an all-round superb game which included two assists.

Lions boss Sam Marchant told JC Sport: “Our performance today was much better than that of previous weeks. We’ve been getting results and not playing too well, but today we played better and the result came with it. We were clinical for the most part, but could have had more on another day, especially hitting the woodwork twice.

"The level of performance was a step in the right direction for us, but we know we have plenty more gears which we can get into when playing our best football. We also owed Catford a bit of revenge from last season, where them taking four points off us is what likely cost us the title. Catford didn’t create much, and an unfortunate own goal on the stroke of half-time gave them some hope but we reacted superbly to finish the tie in the second half."

Cats player-manager Jeff Gotch told JC Sport: "We were beaten by the better team ... end of."