Under 11s Lions Purring!!!

The Lions put their two month unbeaten run on the line yesterday, Ok they have only played one game in that time but…..
With their fixture to be played in that little known tropic on the West Bromwich/Walsall borderland of Bustleholme, no one expected the game to be on but with the sun cracking the flagstones and the palm trees gently swaying in the February breeze the Lions were back on the prowl!!
With the team down to its bare bones, skipper Josh and Harrison on a mid season break in Dubai ( ok!! Tenby and York!! ) and Owen Lloyd injured the pride was down to nine!!
The lads lined up against Great Barr Harriers our old foes from division two now not surprisingly sitting at the top of the fourth division ( Why drop good teams like them and Beechdale down for no reason??)
Great Barr kicked off and the lions quickly won possession and then decided to play keep ball and passed the ball around the team for a good two or three minutes before getting their first shot off!! this was to be the pattern for the first half with the defenders passing out from the back and the midfield probing and making multiple chances. whilst the lions were down to eight players after Liam had caught a knock in the face the remaining players once more cut through Great Barr only for the goalkeeper to pull off a double save from the ever lively Alex Jones ( No not that one!!) as he rose like a tin of John West’s to head the ball goal wards and then had the follow up shot saved and scrambled away!
The Lions didn’t have to wait much longer as Rhys ‘lightening’ Parry broke through after a fine build up and slotted the ball past the advancing keeper. 1-0 at half time and playing fantasy football but we should have been well ahead, the boys started the second half like the first but with the scent of blood in their nostrills the boys started to lose their shape a little and Great Barr managed a couple of shots on goal and disturbed Sam ‘Safe Hands’ Silk from his forty winks. this seemed to galvanise the lions into action. Connor ‘Psyco’ Stevens picked up a clearance from their defence and sent a left foot pile driver in on goal only for their keeper to fetch it out at full stretch! Connors mum confided in me that she may have needed a Tena Lady if the keeper hadn’t have saved it!! ( Too Much information Mrs Stevens!! ) Then Alex Jones thought he had finally broke his duck when he slotted the ball past the keeper from a re bound only for it to be chalked off for offside!
As the lions probed for a second Liam Craddock was fouled just outside the box and Ryan Wood stepped up to rifle an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner of the goal!! “We have been practising them!” said the chuffed assistant manager/ Dad!!!!
the icing on the cake came quickly afterwards, the un flappable Connor Lloyd received the ball from Sam, beat their forward and passed to Richie Sutton who passed it into the midfield to Liam, he turned and played the ball out wide to Aaron ‘GO GO Gadget’ Clee. He ran into the box and pulled the ball back to Liam on the edge of the box who took a touch and hit a cracking half volley past the keeper!!
3-0 the final score, you couldn’t chip the smile off the managers face as he wondered around talking gibberish ( Nothing new there then! ) and shaking his head spluttering Brilliant!! Brilliant!!
Its nice to hear the opposite manager and the referee saying what a fantastic footballing side you are and if we had a natural goalscorer it would have been double figures!! Man of the Match Connor Lloyd
Well done boys keep playing our way!!!

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