Quote of the Week by Wayne Bridge

“It doesn’t matter what happened in the game - we got the three points.”
Wayne Bridge gets confused after winning the Carling Cup final with Chelsea.

Best Penalty Ever? You Cannot Make It Up.

When is a card red or yellow?

The different fouls that make the ref get out the red or yellow card.

There are seven different offences that can get you a yellow card:

Anything that can be deemed as unsporting behaviour
Dissent by word or action

Lions Thrash NLO One Nil

MATCH REPORT NLO 0 – 1 Dutch Lions
by Peter Clark

The Lions continued their post Christmas winning streak, making it four on the bounce with a narrow away win over NLO.

In truth, the winning margin should have been far greater, but the NLO keeper was in inspired form, making at least half a dozen saves from one-on-one situations. However, three points are three points, and the climb up the table continues.

The Lions made one change from their last match, with Ahmed dropping back into midfield to replace the unavailable Julian, and Jabba partnering Paulo up front.

The Lions started off positively, with Pedro and Ahmed soon in control in midfield, while Timid, Jabba and Paulo’s movement was obviously going to pose the somewhat ponderous NLO defence a few problems. Several chances went begging, while the referee pulled back Timid for a free kick when he was right through, with no advantage allowed.NLO threatened sporadically, without threatening Aaron, whose concentration proved spot on when he made a magnificent save from a free kick in NLO’s only shot on target in the first half.

All the pressure and the football was from the Lions though, and they were duly rewarded when Paulo scored. Despite the neat football, this goal was strictly route 1. A long free kick from Grant was allowed to run through to the alert Paulo, who calmly tucked the ball past the keeper into the onion bag.

Further chances went begging, and the Lions were denied a clear cut penalty when Paulo again latched onto Peter’s searching fifty yard pass to race clear. In the act of shooting, his heels here kicked, and unbelievably, the ref waved play on.

Turning round at 1-0, NLO came more into the game. Their right winger began to find a bit of space and their midfield started to win a few challenges. Despite this, chances still came and went at the other end, with the NLO keeper making numerous blocks and saves, including one point-blank effort from Ahmed. Taila and Yasser came on for Timid and Jabba as the Lions reasserted themselves, and with numerous stoppages for injuries to NLO players, the game drew to a stuttering close without further goals.

So, nothing spectacular, and it should have been more than 1-0, but still a good solid performance.

Aaron exuded his usual confidence from the goal, while Ollie and Grant were imperious in the middle of defence, and Noel’s pace and skill proved again to be too much for the opposition’s right wing. Good to see another clean sheet.

Hamzeh worked the right wing, skinning their right back n a couple of occasions, while Pedro and Ahmed were working as hard at the end as the beginning.

For once, Timid found himself up against a full back that matched him for pace, yet still caused the opposition’s defence all sort of problems. Up front, Jabba and Paulo worked the line, and Paulo’s ability to get shots on target means he will score a good few more goals before the end of the season.

The top half of the table beckons, with fourth place at least surely now a realistic target.

Nuff Said..

Real Madrid striker Robinho says he will not be going to Tottenham because he will only move to “another big club”. (Daily Mirror). 

10,000 Hits So Far..

Thanks for hitting us people. I am amazed with this figure and really proud of what we have. I think the guest match day reporter thing is working out well too. Ahmed, Grant and Noel appear to be enjoying the whole reporter ting of late. Cheers also to Timid for the great new banner above.

Some of my personal highlights in the past 5 months would have to include our first Real post getting the club off the ground, Our first League win, The John & Timid Show, The exchange of Wrestling moves with Gwalia and Junior Pony Treking in Hertfordshire. Tell us what yours was?

Make www.dutchlionsfc.co.uk your homepage now!

Lions Winning Streak Continues in the Cup

Highgate Albion 1 Dutch Lions 2 
Match Report by Grant 

Today the Dutch Lions faced arguably their toughest match to date as they took on a team in the league above in the cup. Morale was high on the back of two straight wins for the Lions after a productive team meeting at the pub.

An ominous sign was the Robin Red Breast spotted by gaffer Donald at the John Lyon  car park and from then on hopes were high, (some of you may remember the sighting prior to our win against NLO) the scene was once again set for a Dutch Lions domination.

Dutch Lions are devoted Bird Watchers

After a long and hard journey up the A1 we arrived at the opposition car park. I must admit seeing Arran still High from the previous night’s antics didn’t give me the up most confidence but even a high Arran is better than most.

There was an air of confidence around the Lions changing rooms you could smell it in the air, or was that Mo? Anyway we got changed and began warming up, after an inspirational team talk from Don, Pedro and The Lions own Jose Mourinho AKA John Ramalho we were ready.

The opposition started brightly and came at us strong, the Lions held out carving out a few chances of our own only to be denied by some good stops from the Highgate Keeper. Then came the opposition’s goal created by a nippy winger cutting inside and laying the ball through to an ozzy who scored. Rubbish goal.

The Lions response was equal to QPR drawing with Port Vale 4 – 4 after being 4 – 1 down with 10 minutes to go. We pulled together as a team and were determined not to be beaten, soon after, a chance to pull level was created with the keeper caught in no mans land after a good ball over the top to Paulo whose shot was cleared of the Line by a Highgate defender.

The Lions felt there time was now and began to put the Highgate defence under some serious pressure which paid off with Tim Head breaking down the line and slotting a passed shot to the left of the keeper. The lions fans (Hamzeh’s kid brother) were sent into raptures and the assistant struggled to hold them back.

Further Lions domination led us in for the half time team talk when we re-capped on the points talked about prior to the match. After a brief chat we were ready to kick some arse.

What came next was magical, Tim Head showed excellent skill to beat three men in the middle of the park and dink a ball over the top to in form stirker Paulo Ramalho. Paulo took the ball down and unselfishly layed the ball square to Buzzy Ajjour who blasted the ball past a despairing HighGate goalkeeper his 3rd in two games. Great Goal, that’s how football should be played.  
 
From then on Highgate were out to win and threw everything at us however we stayed strong with Julian and Pedro taking the pressure of the two centre backs and Peter Clark, Noel, Hamzeh (replaced by Macca) and Tim Head dominating the wing play. The Lions got what their performance deserved and our in the hat for the next round. The match was only tarnished by some harsh words from the HighGate “AV IT” winger who received a red card for his efforts, well done that man!
Finally I would like to make a special mention to Ollie, my right hand man, who has been in outstanding form of late.  Julian who remains resilient in the middle allowing Pedro a bit more room to attack, Paulo who never stops nibbling heels and Ahmed who is just simply scoring his chances.

Timid as usual showed us why he doesn’t always pass with some excellent skill and final balls forward to the front two. Arran was excellent in goal and saved the defence on more than one occasion.

And finally the team in general (especially Grant) was fantastic. If we can keep this form going there is no reason why we can’t beat who ever the League put in front of us. Let’s win this cup.

Leave Arsenal At Your Peril

Here’s My Theory
Bobby Pires - Cruciate ligament in his left knee, Eduardo César Gaspar AKA Edu - knee ligament damage also, Overmars - Persistent knee injury forced early retirement, Anelka - Just Plain toilet after Wenger, Pascal Cygan - Arrested for impersonating a football player & Now Ashley Cole with knee ligament damage. Strange but true.

The Funniest Section of Ashley Cole’s Book “When I heard Jonathan (Barnett) repeat the figure of £55k, I nearly swerved off the road. “He is taking the piss, Jonathan!” I yelled down the phone. I was so incensed. I was trembling with anger”