The Maccabi Masters Rep Team have reached the third round of the Peter Morrison Trophy after beating the Lions in a fiercly contested match at Rowley Lane.
In the end, only an own goal separated the sides in what some people may describe as a shock result with Masters edging past Lions team boosted by several members of their Masters team that players in the Garston Vets League.
It was Maccabi Masters who started the brighter, seemingly more determined to take the initiative with more of the possession during the opening spells.
However, as the game wore on, the Lions found their stride and started to stretch Masters.
The second period of the first first half ebbed and flowed but surprisingly neither goalkeeper was seriously troubled. Nothing separated the teams at half time with the scores level at 0-0.
The second half started in much the same way as the first half, with the Masters producing the better football, and the breakthrough came midway through the second half with Maccabi Masters finding space down the right side of midfield after a defensive mix up allowed Scott Asher’s to find time to measure a cross which was deflected into his own net by the unfortunate Paul Buxton.
With Lions now sensing that time was running out, they upped the ante and threw the kitchen sink at the Masters but some dogged defending and crunching tackles thwarted any attempted goal scoring chances.
Lions’ most effective weapon came from set pieces but again the Masters defended valiantly, throwing bodies on the line and subsequently counter attacking with great fluidity.
A pulsating cup tie which was a credit to the Peter Morrison which saw Maccabi Masters safely through to round three.
Masters player-manager Dan Collins told JC Sport: "I'm really proud of the performance of my team yesterday, against an exceptionally strong Lions side. The level of passion and commitment of my players was the only thing between the sides.
"I'm looking forward to the next round and would like to repeat our feat of the last two seasons of reaching the quarter finals. it all depends on who we draw but feel we can give anyone a game on our day."
Lions joint-manager Danny Reuben said: "We played very well against a dogged Maccabi Rep Team - we had the balance of play and umpteen shots, corners etc, but couldn't score. They, on the other hand, didn't really trouble our keeper in any way until we put one in our own net!. That's cup football. Shortly before their goal I turned to Danny Collins (their manager) on the sidelines (I had come off injured at this stage) and said that whilst we were dominating, but not killing the game off, they were going to nick a goal. We had a laugh about it, as it wasn't particularly probable, until it happened within a few minutes - strange, but my laughter turned to frustration very quickly.
"After the game one of our players, Danny Schindler, said to me that "their desire to defend was greater than our desire to score" which pretty much summed up the game - we had the chances, the possession, but they, clearly fired up to get something from the game, put their bodies on the line with a number of terrific goalline clearances, which ultimately decided the tie.
"I wish them every success, hopefully they will go on to represent all of us Masters very well against younger opposition in the next round."
Masters: Adam Meranda, Jason Harris, Nigel Goldthorpe, David Rose (sub: Laurence Beck), Laurence Myers (sub: Paul Shamplina), Perry Yam, Craig Henry, Kevin Lotzof (sub: Scott Ansher), Ashley Davidson, Richard Sacks, Mark Wagman
Lions: Danny Jacobs, Danny Reuben (sub: Darren Dryer), Andy Myers, Danny Schindler, Paul Buxton, Justin Spiro, Andy Miller, Warren Leader, Bradley Lazarus, Max Radford, Hadley Silver
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