By
David Gold
Dean Nyman returned to London Lions in style as his superb finish gave Tony Gold's side a 2-1 win at London Colney in the first game of their Spartan Midlands League Division One campaign.
It was all the more satisfying a result for Lions as they had lost to Colney home and away last season.
A new look Lions took to the field with both Nyman returning as captain up front and Ollie Craig making his debut at left back, with Gold deploying an attacking 4-3-3 system.
Lions made the worst possible start with Matt Newman taking advantage of a defensive mix up to drill the ball past the stranded Danny Berliner inside 45 seconds to leave them shell-shocked.
Despite the setback Lions came into the game and were on top for most of the half, with TJ Keterman unlucky to see a chip tipped onto the bar. But Berliner had to be on hand to keep Lions in the game on more than one occasion in the first period as Colney looked dangerous on the break.
Andy Glynne finally drew them level early in the second half following an impressive build up which finished with Daniel Stanton playing in Nyman, who in turn released Ben Ellis, and his cross was fired home in style.
Then with just under half an hour remaining substitute Josh Kennet, on his comeback after nine months out through injury, played in Nyman after a good first touch and the forward raced onto the pass to fire across the goalkeeper into the corner of the net.
Gold was delighted with the win and said: "I have nothing but admiration for this Lions squad today.
"Following last week's embarrassment at Berkhamsted in the cup, the lads have responded in the only way they could with a gutsy, hard working and technically superb 90 minutes of football.
"We now have something to build on and work towards."
London Lions: Danny Berliner, David Soutar, Adam Myeroff, Ollie Craig (Adam Klein), Kyle Bentwood, Andy Glynne (Avi Schwartz), Aron Barnes, Daniel Stanton, TJ Keterman (Josh Kennet), Ben Ellis, Dean Nyman
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