The Lions hosted Bucklands Beach Man United on a chilly morning at Bledisloe Park, with all players available for action with the exception of David, who was away on a warmer part of the planet.  Although school half term and the high breezy conditions of the week meant that the Lions had not played for a couple of weeks, they were all very keen to get started. The coach was ready, and although confined to the comfort of a cool film director’s chair, this did not reduce his magical impact on the team.

From kick off the Bucklands Beach showed pace throughout their line up and were soon moving the ball around midfield well, only to be halted with the Lions defence made up by Sofia as goalkeeper, Grace and Jack. Up front the Lions were configured with Lochlan, Matthew and Scott >having to work hard against the speedy opposition. Megan provided the midfield play for the Lions and when the half time whistle finally came, the relieved supporters saw the score at 0 – 1 to Bucklands Beach. The first half had seen the Lions players all having superb individual games, demonstrating good shielding, fake and explodes skills, but not really gelling as a team that we have been so used to seeing.

From the kick off of the second half, some great creativity was starting to emerge in the Lions, as well as awesome some personal efforts. Keely & Conner showed great determination in defence and Evan making a fantastic the save of the match in his goalkeeping role. Grace was tirelessly covering great areas of the pitch and a great goal opportunity came for Scott and Lochlan, worked from the back by Sofia. But the goal was denied by the metal work as two successive shots rebounded off each goal post – the supporters fully displaying their passion. The Lions came back decisively to take the score to 1-1 and although at the final whistle, the score rested at 1 – 2 to Bucklands
Beach, the Lions had all enjoyed their match.

WELL DONE – LIONS ROAR!