Lions roar past Brixton in Cup

Whilst a young Maccabi London Lions team cruised comfortably into the next round of the cup, there were one or two difficult periods of the games where they lost concentration, and their playing levels dropped.

Peter Morrison Cup Second Round:
Maccabi London Lions Spartans 3 Brixton Old Boys 1
Sunday, 19 October, 2014

In fact in the first 15 minutes of the game, but for a triple-save from goalkeeper Jack Franks, Brixton could easily have found themselves ahead. It was probably that opportunity that sparked the Lions into life, and midway through the first half, Sam Shooter opened the scoring when he ran onto a low cross from the right hand side from Harry Franks.

Lions started to settle down a little and again a cross in from the right saw a Max Kyte shot blocked, but fell to Shooter who added a second with a well-taken right foot volley.

With the score 2-0 at half time, it was probably Brixton who were the happier of the two teams. Manager Andy Landesberg had warned his team that this was not going to be easy, and that the youngsters needed to be disciplined and play with a high tempo and make the right decisions. The half-time team talk was the same as the pre-match talk all over again, with manager Andy Landesberg looking for them to come out for the second half and put right all the bad habits they had picked up in the first half.

But that was not to be and Lions continued to play at a poor level, with mistakes and poor decisions continuing across the team. Eventually with 13 minutes to go Max Kyte added a third goal, taking his chance well with the inside of his right foot. With six minutes remaining, some poor Lions defending allowed Brixton to get a goal and that is how the score remained 3-1 to the Lions.

Manager Andy Landesberg, was less than happy with his young Lions, although it was never going to be an easy ride against Brixton. There was only one thing to say to the Boys at the end of the game and that was, “we are in the hat for the next round of the cup, and hopefully you listen and learn from today;s experience”.

“Congratulations to Brixton, who gave a great account of themselves today, they never stopped working and competing from start to finish.”