SPARTAN SOUTH MIDLANDS LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
WODSON PARK 6 LONDON LIONS 0
Halloween came six days early for London Lions following this horror show.
Manager Tony Gold described it as "a shocking day at the office" as his troops were crushed by a ruthless Wodson Park.
Lions' cause wasn't helped by numerous changes to the side for the 12th game this season, but certainly, on paper, the team should have performed far better than it did. Lions were simply blown away by a side that showed a greater hunger, desire and character.
The Lions made the worst possible start as they fell a goal behind on 15 minutes. It was a goal to grace any game, but the jury was out on whether or not Lions could have closed the man down earlier, before he launched his 25-yard screamer into the top corner.
Things went from bad to worse just four minutes later when what looked like a harmless free-kick from distance was lofted into the Lions area; no-one in the home side's back five reacted and the ball tricked into the goal to the astonishment of the visitors and those in the ground watching.
Lions did muster two good opportunities on 30 and 36 minutes respectively, but Dean Nyman blasted high and wide from a good position and then Michael Sacks saw an effort from a corner smash against the crossbar.
Wodson went 3-0 up on the stroke of half-time. Another calamitous error in the Lions rearguard presented the visitors with the easiest of goals.
At the interval Lions needed to ignite something to get them going as the belief from the management was that they could still get something from the game.
However, 60 seconds after the restart, and in controversial fashion, Lions conceded a needless penalty. The decision was controversial because in the build-up to the ball making its way into the Lions box, they had a great case for an offside which, of course, never came. The visitors scored the penalty and any hopes of a Lions comeback were dead and buried.
With just over 75 minutes played, Lions fell further behind following another error and Lions embarrassment was complete as Wodson scored a sixth with a few minutes remaining.
Lions boss Tony Gold could not hide his disappointment at the final whistle. He said: "You go into a game of football believing you can win it. Then the players cross that white line and fail to take responsibility, they couldn't pass it and kept giving it away mixed in with some dreadful mistakes.
"Wodson were bright, incredibly hard working and they took full advantage of our inadequacies, in the end it was an embarrassment.
"It is what it is - Steve, Andy and I picked the team, we thought that team could win so there is no blame on anything else. I take my share of the blame because I was involved in team selection, but obviously the players have to take responsibility because they didn't play very well.
"Set-backs are a part of football, you have to get over them. It's been a terrible day. The players don't need telling because I could have stood there until midnight. I will want a response on Wednesday and I'm sure the players will as well, but the likelihood is we will probably have a completely different group of players and the roulette wheel will spin once more."
LIONS: Mario Cenolli, Jake Rinsler, Sam Shooter, Michael Sacks, Jon Kurrant, Harry Hatchwell (sub: Harry Hatchwell), Zac Rose (sub: Ben Winters), Andy Glynne, Rafi Soccairello, Dean Nyman, Max Kyte. Sub not used: Tony Gold
