SPARTAN SOUTH MIDLANDS LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
BUCKINGHAM ATHLETIC 8 LONDON LIONS 2
Tony Gold gave a brutally honest assessment after London Lions went down to their second consecutive heavy defeat, an 8-2 mauling at Buckingham Athletic.
The last time London Lions visited Buckingham Athletic it was a place that held fond memories. It was a lovely sunny Saturday in April 2013 and a day Lions secured the Spartan South Midlands Division One title, thanks to a great headed goal from Ben Ellis in the final few minutes of the game.
"Forward two years later and Lions will want to forget their latest visit as quickly as possible. Had the great American contemporary horror novelist Stephen King been in the sparse crowd watching, after the 90 minutes he would have had all the material needed to write his next bestseller. Some of the titles of King's previous pieces of work would have been extremely apt in summing up Lions performance on the day, Misery, Bag of Bones, Desperation, Skeleton Crew and Insomnia.
With the exception of Captain Josh Kennet and the persistence of Charlie Kasler, the rest of the team came up miserably short in every department. Lions cause of course was not helped by the fact that they gifted their opponents four first-half goals in what can only be described as a kamikaze 45 minutes of football.
A despondent management team, lost for words, mustered together a plan for the response they wanted implemented, but the Lions team didn't need telling, they knew their inadequate 45 minutes was completely unacceptable.
Thirty seconds into the restart of the second-half and Lions responded, pulling a goal back from a great Kennet finish to make it 4-2. That mini-revival, however, was as good as it got for the rest of the game, as Lions once again hit the self-destruct button causing an eruption of self-capitulation on an epic scale.
Three penalties, four goals, a sending off and one brawl later and Sergio Leone, the director of the film The Good, The Bad and The Ugly had everything he needed for the sequel.
Dan Lee in one moment on madness, decided to re-enact a scene from Mean Machine and take on the role of Jason Statham's 'Monk'. Following an unnecessary tussle with one of Buckingham's players, Lee inexcusably threw a punch which unfortunately incited a mini-brawl. Once calm had been restored Lee was given his marching orders, along with Buckingham's manager, and Lions had to play out the final 30 minutes with 10 men.
Rick Jacobson drew the short straw and was given the job of keeping goal. Buckingham scored four more times to rub salt deeply into Lions wounds.
Gold expressed extreme disappointment at the final whistle. He said: "With the exception of Josh and Charlie, the rest of the players that wore the Lions badge today let the club down. In all my years having been involved with the first team I have never witnessed such a lame, pathetic, insulting and depressing performance.
"Getting beat is part of football and I never have any issues losing football matches. However, when a team rolls over before the game has even started and the attitude, desire and application isn't there, then I do have to question the character of the players.
"Andy, Steve and myself were very comfortable with the side chosen given the players that were unavailable to us and that makes it even more depressing.
"We have worked really hard to turn around over the last seven months, which have been an incredibly difficult corner for the club. Results have improved tenfold and been good and performances, at times, have been excellent.
"Today we took a gigantic step backwards and that is what is extremely disappointing. I hope today was just a really bad day at the office and that on Wednesday against a very powerful and tremendously talented Broxbourne side, the players give the club a desired and anticipated response."
LIONS: Dan Lee, Zac Rose, Kyle Bentwood, Guy Morris, Jake Rinsler, Charlie Kasler, Rick Jacobson, Josh Kennet, Andy Glynne, Sam Shooter, Max Kyte
