Lions back to winning ways

Traveling to Hastings for a 1030 start on a cold and wet January Saturday proved challenging for the Lions who arrived with only 9 players. South Saxons dominated the first half exploiting there extra numbers and some poor decision making by the Lions who too often gave away hard won passion too easily. Defensively the whole team played well thwarting the near constant waves of South Saxons attacks. Man of the match Joe Fitch playing in central defence tackled and intercepted brilliantly, supported by another fine performance by Sam Webster and Jake Bage stepping up to play out of position on the left of defence, despite conceding some 15 penalty corners, they limited South Saxons to a handful of chances all easily dealt with by Jonathan Cornish in goal. Turning around at half-time at 0-0 marked the turning point of the game. The lions started with composure and maintaining hard fought passion as opportunities started to appear. Archie Sherwood playing in unfamiliar territory in the centre of midfield found more space and together with Freddy Squires-Saunders and Charlie Kingsbury possession lead to chances for Adan Stonely playing as a lone front man. Positive passing lead to territory and terriroy lead to chances. with 15 minutes to Freddy intercepted another South Saxons attack, beat 2 players to release Archie who slipped the ball under his shoulder to Charlie whose trickery bamboozled 2 defenders before releasing Adam with a perfectly weighted pass who slipped the final defender before slotting the ball under the advancing 'keeper to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. Despite an all out assault from South Saxons the Lions clung on to record an excellent away win.