Lench Grabs the Headlines

On a cold but bright Sunday morning at Rowley Lane The Lions entertained Roving Reporters, a club formed by the most famous wearer of a sheepskin coat in the world of football, John Motson.

Coming into this one on the back of a 4-2 win last time out, The Lions were keen to achieve back to back wins, and keep up with the SAL league's pace-setters.

Yet within the first 20 minutes the home side found themselves trailing by two goals. Almost in identical circumstances, deep hesitant defending and a touch of fortune saw the home stopper Swead beaten even though the keeper did well to get a hand on both efforts.

A change in personnel saw the introduction of the energetic pair of Gold and Klein and a reshuffle across the pitch had an almost instant impact.

Benfredj and Daggers combined to create an opening for Lenchner who calmly halved the deficit from 8 yards. Within two minutes The Lions had completely turned the score line on its head. First Lazarus with a text book Laz finish from distance and then Nygate rose powerfully to meet a Radford corner to put the hosts in front with a bullet header into the roof of the net.

Daggers got himself on the scoresheet, giving him the chance to update his thousands of social media followers, with a long range effort that evaded the desperate reach of the visitor's keeper, before Lenchner grabbed his second, finishing off a fine flowing move by flicking it in with the outside of his boot from a tight angle.

5-2 at half time; the rolling changes continued as did Lions' quest for more goals. Klein, now playing more like a left winger than a left back, combined with Gold and found the bottom corner of the net with a tidy finish and after good work from Wagman to hold off his defender, he laid the ball into the path of Soutar, brother of David making his debut, who made no mistake with another clinical low strike.

Gold quite deservedly got his name on the scoresheet with Lions' eighth goal of the day after the keeper parried a Lenchner strike into his path for the simplest of tap ins, and it was left to Lenchner to wrap things up and take home the match ball with a close range volley at the back post.

With the final score an emphatic 9-2 victory for The Lions, and with a number of players missing out due to various reasons, the SAL team seem to be gaining momentum and confidence as they progress through their first campaign in this new league. Once again, justifiably, their management duo (aided this week by Dan Reuben) retained the MOTW award for a second week running.