An under strength London Lions went down to a heavy 4-0 defeat at St. Albans in the South Midlands First Division.
August 22, 2011 11:10An under strength London Lions went down to a heavy 4-0 defeat at St. Albans in the South Midlands First Division.
After a bright start for Lions, captain Dean Nyman had a shot which went just off target before Daran Bern raced through only to see his weak effort saved by Will Viner.
As Lions' promising start fizzled out, St Albans came into the game and took the lead just before the break when Dan Petrucci took advantage of poor defending, and soon after the start of the second period they were two behind as Dan Quattromini capitalised on a fortunate deflection to fire home.
A shellshocked Lions were three behind minutes later as the unfortunate David Soutar turned into his own goal, and the rout was completed by Petrucci on the counter attack in the dying moments.
Lions manager Tony Gold said "At the moment we are not a team and until we become one these performances and results will continue".
"We had eleven competent individuals out there today but we can't expect them to become a team overnight and everything to fall into place when that eleven keeps changing from one game to the next and then expect them to win against a side whose first team play in the Southern League Premier Division.
"Somehow, somewhere we need to find a settled 14/15 players who are able to play week in and week out.
"Our back four to date has had a minimum of two changes in each of our first four games so it is no surprise we keep conceding soft goals.
"Conceding the goal just before half-time took the wind out of our sails. The result flatters St Albans a little bit but we have given away soft goals again and if we don't start getting it right in both boxes we're are going to constantly cause ourselves problems."
"Nothing seemed to go our way in the second-half what with the deflection to set up their second goal and the unfortunate own goal but our overall fitness just diminished and St Albans took full advantage of that.
"Now we travel to Harpenden Town on Tuesday night and which ever eleven takes to the field on the night, they will need to pick themselves up and get the right result".
It was the second disappointing result in a week after Lions fell to a 2-0 home loss to Welwyn Garden City, bringing an abrupt end to what had been a fantastic start to the season.
London Lions: Danny Berliner, Daniel Stanton, Kyle Bentwood, David Souter, TJ Keterman, Andy Glynne (Aviel Schwartz), Daran Bern, Ben Lampert, Steve Summers (Ben Ellis), Dean Nyman, Brad Frankel