Ruthless Lions come out fighting
FOOTBALL ANDY Landesberg has defended his selection policy following Maccabi London Lions A’s Peter Morrison Trophy victory over Oakwood A.
The Lions fielded several members of their Saturday team who also play in the Herts Senior County League Premier Division, two of whom scored in a 3-1 win. But Landesberg is standing by his decision, insisting the Morrison Trophy is a competition he “wants to win”.
Former England junior and Arsenal starlet Austin Lipman (2) and Josh Kennet set up a semi-final showdown against defending MGBSFL champions North London Raiders.
Priortokick-off,Landesbergdescribed the Morrison as “a trophy that is important to the club” and advised that the Lions “will certainly be showing the competition the respect it deserves”.
Dave Woolman had given Oakwood an early advantage but once Lipman headed past Dan Cohen, the outcome was inevitable.
Landesberg said: “It’s not easy playing two games in two days, especially after coming off a poor performance on Saturday.
“We had a long and frank discussion after the Saturday game, and I was very clear what was expected on Sunday against Oakwood. Every single player responded and we deliveredwhatwehad talked about.
“Oakwood are a good, strong and very competitive team and I was totally serious when I told the boys in the pre-match talk that I would love to see two or three of their players in our squad.”
Landesberg’s selection wasconsistentwiththeteamthat featured in the previous round against Blizzard Storm but he came in for criti- Adam Lipman ( impressed for Lions who were also in the spotlight for their Sunday cup selection policy in 2013 cism f or playing his t o p- l e v e l p l a y e r s — all of whomare registered in the Sunday cup. “Obviously Oakwood were disappointed, but they should take credit for the fact that I knew I needed our best players to be able to beat them, that is how highly I rated them,” said Landesberg.
Oakwood joint-manager Dan Kristall said: “We welcome playing against the best players — we’d love to do it every week. If those Lions players ever get bored of Saturdays, Sundays aren’t so bad. But all we care about is that whoever they play in the next round, they have as strong a team out. We’ll be seriously disappointed if Josh Kennet, Austin Lipman, Charlie Kasler and Max Kyte aren’t available for Raiders.
“For me, it is a bit of a shame that they don’t show a little more faith in their regular Sunday players who as a result don’t get an opportunity to play in the Jewish FA cup.
“I’m quite certain that if they play the same team for their remaining games, they will win the competition.”
Josh Green fired a double as the Raiders boosted their treble hopes with a comfortable victory over Oakwood B.
Further strikes from David Dinkin, Jordan Marks, Ricky Engleman and a first of the season for Matt Stock added the gloss.
Oaks boss Jason Stein commented: “Raiders were two levels above what we are used to and I’ve got nothing to complain about.”