SPARTAN SOUTH MIDLANDS LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
SUN POSTAL SPORTS 1 LONDON LIONS 1

London Lions claimed a point away at Sun Postal Sports and could have no complaints about the coming away from a hard fought battle honours even.

The home side showed far more endeavour and worked a lot harder then a below-par Lions team who created enough chances to win the game but were wasteful in front of goal.

Only time will tell if this was a good point earned or two valuable points dropped, but one thing is for sure, Lions will need to show a greater determination moving forward with tougher games expected.

Lions lined up with a strong 11 plus a solid bench, but were without the services of Craig Ellis, David Souter and Michael Sacks, while Andy Glynne and Matt Stock got much needed playing time with the reserves.

The visitors were dominant in the first half, and ultimately paid the price for not putting the game to bed in the first 45 minutes after creating several good openings. Ben Ellis gave the visitors the lead with an accomplished finish following good work from Dean Nyman on 25 minutes and it looked like it was only a matter of time before the second arrived.

Guy Morris, Sam Sloma, Dean Nyman and Adam Bolle were all guilty of missing the target when, in truth, they should have done better.

In the second period Lions continued to create chances but their tempo, work-rate and all-round desire dropped considerably, and on 55 minutes they paid the price. Sun Postal’s only chance in 90 minutes was converted very well after a decent move, although a foul on Nyman a minute earlier seemed to have been missed by the officials causing some controversy.

Daniel Stanton and Guy Helman were introduced shortly after the equalising goal, and with 30 minutes remaining Lions still had ample opportunities to win the game.

However, time after time they failed to find the crucial quality to make those chances count and in the end had to settle for the 1-1 draw.

Lions manager Tony Gold said: "This was an odd game; we didn’t play poorly and we weren’t electric. I guess somewhere in between.

"Complacency and the fact we didn’t match Sun’s determination, especially in the second half, proved costly as far as three points were concerned.

"It's never a bad thing to receive a wake-up call every now and then so I expect to see a response from the lads on Wednesday and three hard-earned points in the bag come the end of the night."

Lions: Mario Cenolli, Danny Berg (sub: Guy Helman), Adam Myeroff, Guy Morris, Jake Gottlieb, Aron Barnes, Sam Sloma, Josh Kennet, Dean Nyman (sub: Daniel Stanton), Adam Bolle, Ben Ellis

Scorer: Ben Ellis