ByDanny Caro, Danny Caro
London Lions were in seventh heaven following their best result of the season to date beating Bedford 7-0 at home.
A hat-trick from Sam Sloma and one apiece from Ben Ellis, Andy Glynne, Aron Barnes and Adam Myeroff made it five wins from their last five games.
Lions put Bedford to the sword with a seven goal salvo and carried on their recent good form with five wins from their last five games.
Lions were forced to make several changes from the successful cup final team who recently won the Herts Centenary Trophy. Out went leading goal scorer James Gershfield, TJ Keterman, Matt Stock and Jon Ellis and in came Sam Sloma, Steven Field and recent new signing Kyle Bentwood.
Bedford and Lions last met on the very first day of the new season with both sides playing out a terrific 3-3 draw. It is fair to say this time round both sides were very different in both performance and personnel.
The game started with purpose and Lions made an early break through after all their good work. Player-manager Tony Gold delivered a high teasing cross which Ben Ellis controlled superbly and then managed to lay off to Andy Glynne who in turn calmly found time and space to slot home.
The game hit a slight end of season lull with both sides seemingly going through the motions before Sam Sloma finished exquisitely adding a Lions second to reignite the tempo.
As the game edged towards half-time Lions looked comfortable. Defensively Kyle Bentwood was making an impressive debut looking assured and comfortable along side skipper Guy Morris.
The home side added a third five minutes before the break. Ben Ellis was rewarded for his hard work and his involvement in both earlier goals by latching onto a loose ball and guiding it safely past the visiting keeper into the net.
With the sun continuing to shine on a glorious day Lions knew if they could keep the tempo and concentration going for another 45 minutes that more goals were possible.
It was not long before Aron Barnes got in on the action. Good work in the middle of the park from David Soutar and Ben Lauffer found Barnes in space and his mazy run was executed with a neat finish making it 4-0.
Lions then introduced Danny Berg, Daniel Stanton and Steven Field for Lauffer, Ellis and Barnes.
It was good to see the evergreen Berg back in action after missing most of the season through injury. Sloma moved into a more central position up top with Berg and Field filling the wide areas, Glynne moved into the middle of the park.
With 30 minutes remaining Sloma added a Lions fifth and his second of the afternoon. Great work from Field out wide saw his cross played back by Berg who found Glynne who slipped in Sloma to tuck away another tidy finish.
Bedford had clearly lost interest as Lions continued to lay siege on their goal. Sloma completed a well deserved hat-trick with 10 minutes remaining scoring another well taken finish.
With time almost up Lions still had time to add a seventh after the referee spotted a foul on Berg in the Bedford box awarding a 90th minute penalty. After long discussions between Berg and Adam Myeroff as to who was going to take it, the designated penalty taker Myeroff finally stepped up and on the second time of asking after encroachment blasted the ball into the bottom corner of the ball.
Gold said: “Following a successful cup win on Tuesday night, it could have been very easy for the players to turn up today and treat the game as inconsequential.
“I made a number of changes to keep it fresh and ensure that didn’t happen and credit to everyone involved today it was a good, solid performance.
“We still have aspirations of finishing as high as we can in our first season in the South Midlands league but obviously that challenge is not as easy when you only have a very slim mathematical chance of promotion.
“We have 21 points still to play for and our next two games against Berkhamsted and Crawley Green are games we will relish with nothing to fear or lose>”
Lions: Matt Davis, Sam Sloma, Aron Barnes (sub: Danny Berg), Guy Morris, Adam Myeroff, Kyle Bentwood, Tony Gold, David Soutar, Ben Lauffer (sub: Steven Field), Andy Glynne, Ben Ellis (sub: Daniel Stanton)