3 LIONS KILL THE RADIO STARS

The radio 2 team contained absolutely none of the above but there is a prize for the first person to name them all and e-mail me with the answer.

ICL 3 LIONS 4-3 RADIO 2 XI

No, you are not seeing things we have actually won a game. In an epic, see-saw battle the Lions twice came from behind to edge a seven goal thriller thanks to a superb Paul Izons hat-trick and a goal from Paul Clark.

Luckily for us Deano Challoner decided not to take any throw-ins from the edge of the 18-yard boz this week but it was his hesitation in clearing the ball which led to the opening goal for the opposition. All game their forwards were showing that they could cause us problems with the ball at their feet and a lob over the stranded Paul Vennor made it 1-0.

But that was certainly not a fair reflection of the game as we had created several chances, good goalkeeping and fairly woeful finishing were the reasons we had not yet registered a goal. But once again, as in the Infonet game, we were playing excellent football. Wingers Andy Birch and Paul Izons were supplying a constant stream of balls into the box and eventually something had to give. Personally I didn't see our equaliser so if anyone wants to mail me a descriotion of the goal then go ahead!!

I don't think it would be wrong to say that if we had put away just a fraction of the chances we created it could have been 4 or 5 nil at half-time, but we were happy enough with 1-1.

Mindful of the mauling we got in the second half at Redditch we took a firm grip of the midfield at the start of the second half. One of the reasons we look more solid these days i that Dozza plays as a defensive midfielder, this extra help for the back-four is always welcome. It also means that the other 3 midfielders can attack without always worrying about losing the ball.

You'll all be getting bored now so I'll cut it short. They scored for 2-1, we equalised and then took the lead. Dave Cooper went off injured and was obviously badly missed as they equalised! But with true fighting spirit we once again broke upfield and scored again. Their fast and skilful attack tried in vain to salvage something but the defence (and a honourable mention here for Pete Wilson) held firm and at last we could go and have a pint without having to hold a post mortem.

Man of the Match award:

A joint award this time for Paul Izons for his hat-trick and Pete Wilson for a sterling second half performance against a very good forward line.

All in all a very encouraging result.