After a disappointing few weeks, the Lions were hoping to stop the rot this week and were pitted against Parkwood Rockets. Parkwood had come down from the A league the previous season and had beaten Phoenix 4-0 in the opening game of the season.
Kick Off
There was a full squad of 14 to choose from this week. Jason and Martyn went with Tom in goal (who was is also now Captain), in front of him Charlie, with Euan and Oscar in the full back positions. Ben would hold the middle with George, Cameron and Bailey providing support out wide. Jack would take up the lone striker position this week. Harry, Josh, Jai and Henry would be on the bench waiting to join the action.
Playing back at Mayplace School, the pitch looked better than it had for a while although it was dry so the ball would bounce and be difficult to control.
Parkwood, like many other sides in the league, looked another big strong physical side but as in previous weeks, Phoenix matched them early on in what was a fairly even first period. Charlie, Oscar and Euan were doubling up well and Tom was quick off his line to cut out any danger.
However, after about 20 mins the first piece of bad defending from Phoenix was duly punished as it has been pretty much every time a mistake is made – unfortunately a consequence of playing in such a competitive league. Euan had the ball and beat his man well but then turned back inside only to play a back pass short to Tom who could not get control of the ball and the Parkwood striker nicked in. 0-1.
Phoenix got themselves back into the game almost straight away though after some excellent play down the right led to Cameron crossing in and as the Parkwood keeper cleared poorly, Jack was there to send a great shot back over his head and in for 1-1.
Parkwood were next on the attack and Charlie and their diminutive forward were having a real battle with no quarter asked or given. The forward was inside the box and went down fairly easily. The referee – much to the indignation of a distraught Charlie and the watching parents – gave the penalty. The Parkwood striker took the kick himself and sent Tom the wrong way to make it 1-2.
Phoenix were angry now and a few tackles were flying in as they tried to battle their way back into the game again.
In the next attack, Jack was through on goal and bought down inside the box. It looked a nailed on penalty, even more so than the one given against Phoenix but the referee played on and didn’t give it.
Once again, Phoenix had been on the wrong side of a poor decision by the referee but there was nothing they could do.
Half Time – Phoenix Lions 1 Parkwood Rockets 2
At half time, Jason left the team alones so as not to disrupt the play as it had been fairly even but for the penalty decisions.
However, Parkwood changed their formation and stuck their big number 10 up front and dropped their tricky forward back. It worked a treat for them as he started running at the Phoenix back line who just cannot seem to defend against this type of player.
Sure enough it had an almost instant result as he weaved unchallenged into the box and slotted home for 1-3.
After that though, Phoenix started to double up on the striker and tried not to leave him one on one which they managed fairly well on most occasions but it was clear the defence didn’t want to dive in against him so found themselves back pedalling frequently before Tom came sliding out to smother the danger.
Phoenix had changed a few players by now with Josh, James and Henry on and Ben, Cameron and Bailey off.
James was doing well and finding pockets of space and was very unlucky to hit the bar from a superbly taken free kick.
Henry was then put clean through but put his shot wide.
Charlie also hit the post with another well taken free kick and it just looked like it wasn’t to be Phoenix day.
Sure enough the ref blew his whistle for full time and the Lions were defeated again.
Full Time – Phoenix Lions 1 Parkwood Rockets 3
Another disappointing result but in the story of the last few weeks, they had been punished for a couple of defence mistakes and for switching off, when for large parts of the last 3 games they had been the better footballing side.
Jason, Martyn and potential new coach Al all said as much in the team talk afterwards – that despite not being able to match teams physically sometimes, we can certainly out play them and eventually the physical side will even itself out and the footballing side will pay off.
They remain second bottom in the league but still have to play bottom placed Hayden again, South Darenth twice, Real Gima and Highway so there are plenty of points to be won yet.
Come on you Lions!
