Lions Vets end year on a winning note
Andrew Sherwood is the Jewish News Sport and Community Editor
Lions rounded off their fixtures for 2015 with victory in the Invitational Cup over neighbours Hadley.
League Invitational Cup
London Lions 3 Hadley 1
Saturday, 12 December, 2015
The game was effectively settled in the opening 20 minutes, as Lions started strongly and, this time, were able to put the finishing touches to some of their early chances.
Lions welcomed back Rob Glass to the side, and alongside Andrwe Myers dealt comfortably with all Hadley had to offer. This allowed Adam Myeroff a run out at full-back, and it was from one of his umpteen surging drives, that Lions took an early lead. Alex Levack, who pulled the strings from first to last, won the ball deep in his own half and found Craig Pearl with a neat pass. He drove on and rolled the ball inside the full-back, where Myeroff shot goalwards. His strike was going wide, but actually turned into a peach of a cross that Saul Conway sprinted onto to reach and made a hard half-volley finish look easy.
The impressive Levack doubled the lead on 20 minutes with a strike of top quality, launching the ball over the goalkeeper from fully 35 yards as the home side turned the screw. Lazarus was denied a free-kick goal by a decent save, but when Pearl was crudely upended in the box the skipper stepped up and made no mistake.
A three-goal half-time lead was no more than Lions deserved – the challenge was to keep up the levels in the second period. However, despite creating numerous openings the side became guilty of overplaying at times while at others made poor decisions in the final third. Hadley were still in it, and on the hour, got a goal to give them belief. A break away saw Dan Jacobs pull off a fine save, only for the loose ball to be thunderously volleyed back into the net.
Lions became somewhat nervous, especially when chances to put the game to bed weren’t taken. A great save saw a Levack effort tipped onto the bar while Conway hit the foot of either post. With 10 minutes to go Hadley had a great chance to make the closing stages interesting, but they were denied by an excellent one handed stop by Jacobs. Myers and Kaye both had late chances to add some gloss to the scoreline, but in the end a solid team performance and win.
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