Old Lyonians 3 - 0 Old Parkonians (Southern Amateur League)
Old Lyonians 1 - 1 Old Parkonians (Southern Amateur League)

Parks traveled to Lyonians on Saturday to meet an in-form side that was defending their 100% league record. On leaving the changing room, we were greeted by two amazing sights, a pitch that resembled no man's land during WW1, and a lady ref! For the record, the ref was about the best we've had all season - totally eclipsing the bloke who claimed to have refereed a Liverpool-Everton game. Sorry, Murphy.

With the prospect of 2 hours of football in front of them, Parks promptly went behind in the first minute, Lyonians starting like a side that had won 7 out of 7 in the league this season. Parks, however, did not crumble as many sides have at Lyonians, and battled hard to maintain the one goal deficit, with the home side going close on several occasions. Parks reached the break without having tested the opposing keeper, and it was always going to be difficult to come from behind against a side who have only let in 4 goals this season. This task was doubled in size after the restart when Bernstein drilled a back pass past the advancing Turner. Parks pulled themselves back to create a couple of half chances through Mason and Knapman, but both teams were now concentrating on conserving what they had left for the second fixture. Lyonians netted again in the last minute to take a deserved win from the first game, and leave Parks with a mountain to climb to get anything out of game 2.

In a heated discussion after game 1, Parks changed their system to try and free up the influential Jamieson and combat the midfield domination that Lyonians had in the first game. All the pre-game talk was quickly made to be worthless, when the home side took the lead after 5 minutes. The centre-forward finished sharply after chasing a long ball from a decidedly offside starting position. Parks showed great character though, and began to get some belief that they could actually take something from the game. The introduction of Miller gave Parks a spark on the right, and a Knapman corner was flicked on by Parmenter and cleared off the line. Goodhew, Jamieson and Collins were in control in midfield, and Parks kept possession and gained in confidence. After turning around for the last time, Parks dominated the second half. Jamieson released Knapman, who blasted over with time to spare, and, minutes later, Parmenter also wasted a good chance to draw level, skying his one-on-one. Just when it was looking like Parks would draw a blank, Goodhew slipped a through ball to Parmenter, who finished well under pressure, after good work from Mason. In the dying seconds, Parks should have stolen all three points, when Parmenter's 20 yard free kick crashed off the top of the bar to safety.

Parks then came away from Saturday with one point out of a possible six, to leave their promotion hopes dented, but a very good performance in the second game should leave them with confidence to tackle the rest of the season.

Scorer: Parmenter
Man of the Match 1: Nicholls
Man of the Match 2: Parmenter

Report by Tim Cross