PREVIEW | MELBOURNE DYNAMO (a)

LIONS ON THE ROAD FOR THE CUP

Next up, the Lions aim to begin the process of going one better in the Buckingham Insurance League Challenge Cup. Having finished as runners up last season, the team will be keen to get off to a good start as they travel to Melbourne Dynamo from Division One West.

With Melbourne being yet another team who have made the move into the Central Midlands League from the Midland Regional Alliance along with RBL Reserves, there will be an element of familiarity despite the two sides not having met previously.

In RBL’s last match, they faced Clay Cross Town under the lights on Tuesday night. Despite taking an early lead through Owen Brader, RBL were not able to capitalise and conceded three goals and missed a penalty before finally scoring again through Mason Booth-Davis with twenty minutes to go. The Lions were not able to get the equaliser and went down to their first defeat of the season against the new league leaders.

Melbourne will go into this match with no pressure on them, against a side in a higher division. They will want to give a good account of themselves and go for the win as they seem to have found form recently, with ten goals, nine points and two clean sheets in their last three matches. Their last match was a stunning 6-2 victory over Belper United Reserves. A oal from James Smith, a brace from Matt Brian and a hat trick from Charles Tovell emphasised the domination.

The match this weekend sees both sides going in on the back of high scoring victories. We pray for more of the same.

See you there for a 15:00 kick off

PREVIOUS MEETINGS

While the two sides haven’t met recently, the RBL Reserves faced Melbourne Reserves last season.

The first was at Melbourne in January of this year. Toby Foxon and Finlay Charles took the score in at half time at 2-1 as Owen Nixon scored for RBL. The score stayed the same in the second half as Melbourne took the points.

The return match was in April. Goals from Jordan Abbott, Louis Appiah-Kubi and Owen Nixon were answered by a Harry Foxon brace and Oscar Supple to round off an exciting 3-3 draw.