By, Jessica Elgot
2 min read
ByJessica Elgot, Jessica Elgot
Goals from Adam Stolerman and Daniel Stanton pushed Lions back up to second in the HSCL Premier Division with a 2-1 win over in form Chipperfield Corinthians.
An incident packed afternoon ended with an excellent victory for the Lions over a decent, hard working Corinthians side.
With Baldock playing in the cup and Cuffley losing to Wormley, Lions needed this win to keep pace with Wormley who have set a frantic pace at the top of the table.
Lions once again had to make changes to the side that had won the week before at Buntingford Town. Guy Morris, Ben Lauffer, Matt Stock, Daniel Levenfiche and Aron Barnes were all unavailable which meant a rare start for Andy Myers and a debut for Dean Nyman, Andy Glynne returned from injury.
The game was played at a good tempo with both sides playing decent football. Chipperfield’s Darren Gardner was causing the Lions endless problems with some darting and efficient runs through midfield but the end product let the home side down.
Lions opened the scoring via the penalty spot after new boy Dean Nyman was bundled over in the box. Adam Stolerman stepped up but saw his spot kicked saved. With Lions following up and retrieving the ball as it was played back into the box it hit a Chipperfield’s defender’s hand and the ref pointed to the spot again. Second time of asking and Stolerman just squeezed the ball home to put the visitors ahead.
Chipperfield responded robustly and 10 minutes later could have equalised but it seemed the forwards had forgotten their shooting boots.
Every time Lions surged forward they looked dangerous and the game should have been over just before half-time when Lee Cash failed to convert when well placed and Nyman just failed to reach a ball as it fizzed across the goal-mouth.
As the second-half unravelled the Lions were in control but as in previous weeks it was a clear that a second was needed to see the game out. Once again, failing to deal with a routine corner the Lions were pegged back to 1-1. A poor punch from keeper Matt Davis saw the ball drop on the 18 yard box, as it was drilled back in a last-ditch block from Myers was not enough to stop the ball flying into the goal.
Lions could have folded as they had against Baldock, but this time around they dusted themselves down, regrouped and picked up where they left off, taking the game to the visitors.
Ten minutes from time they were rewarded for their efforts as Daniel Stanton found space and time to finish beautifully and give Lions a 2-1 victory.
After the game manager, Lions boss Tony Gold commented “When the lads play like they did today it makes all the hard work worthwhile. I thought Chipperfield contributed to an excellent game of football helped by good officiating from the referee and linesmen.
“To win these type of games you’ve got to have all sorts of abilities and two of the abilities we had today were sticking together when Chipperfield equalised and being organised which was mainly down to an exceptional performance from Andy Myers, both vocally and physically”.
“Chipperfield were a strong side and you can understand why they have been on such a good run of late but I thought our back-four defended magnificently.”