By Daniel Campos (@francisfields)

Eastern Lions have convincingly defeated St Albans Saints 3-0 away at Churchill Reserve on Sunday afternoon.

Proceedings commenced with an attacking mindset as Eastern Lions’ talismanic striker Philip Ajao missed an early chance by almost meeting a cross, but fell short of a header with the match barely two minutes old.

Only a minute later St Albans Saints had their first chance courtesy of Barry Devlin, only for it to go wide.

The majority of the first half saw the hosts with a lot of possession from their own half, although were showing a more desperate long-ball approach to their game.

At times it resulted effectively with Trent Waterson on the right wing where Barry Devlin missed two chances with two headers.

Eastern Lions goalkeeper Robert Havercroft was called into the action by the half hour, and reacted very well with several interventions in the air, and one superb double save denying Devlin and Tedros Yabio.

It turned out to be costly for the home side as just before the half-time break Eastern Lions found themselves on the counter-attack via the left wing.

A tactical switch saw Daniel Rodrigues swap from the left with Munyaradzi Nyadzayo.

It paid dividends almost immediately; Rodrigues found himself unmarked and was able to dribble into the six-yard area and neatly finish past Stuart Webster to open the scoring.

After the opener, the hosts began to change their rhythm of play, preserving the ball neatly and looking for an equaliser before half-time.

In the second half, it was the hosts who continued to lift their performance, but failed to show cohesion in the front third.

St Albans’ Daniel Sweeney went close with two strong efforts from long range, one in particular on the hour mark that went scraping past the crossbar.

On 68 minutes, Barry Devlin again found himself with a good chance in front of goal but Havercroft was able to respond.

Just four minutes later, Eastern Lions dashed any hopes St Albans had as Ajao broke through the Saints’ backline, by dribbling past two markers, to easily slot the ball past Stuart Webster for 2-0.

With ten minutes to go, a perfectly timed header from winger Munyaradzi Nyadzayo made sure the points were going east, putting it past Webster and making the score 3-0.

St Albans 0 lost to Eastern Lions 3 (Rodrigues 41’, Ajao 72’, Nyadzayo 81’) at Churchill Reserve.

St Albans Saints: 1. Stuart WEBSTER, 2. Ryan MCGUFFIE, 4. Nicholas SARBIN, 7. Trent WATERSON, 8. Ross HARVEY, 9. Barry DEVLIN, 11. Nicholas SCERRI, (10. Yusuf YUSUF ’78), 12. Damien PETERS, 18. Ben SHAPER (3. Nana Yaw OTUO-ACHEAMPONG 15’) 5. Tedros YABIO (20. Ante KOZOL 80’), 23. Daniel SWEENEY

Unused Subs:  17.Michael PAUL 21. John SCOLLO

Yellow Cards: Nil.

Red Cards: Nil

Eastern Lions: 1. Robert HAVERCROFT, 2. Williams ELLIS, 3. Matthew PARRY, 4. Chris PAGE, 5. Thomas FALCONER, 6. Andrew WILLIAMS, 8. Mitch BEAMISH, 9. Daniel RODRIGUES, 10. Philip AJAO, 11. Munyaradzi NYADZAYO (12. David McKESSY 85’), 16. Shaun KENNY.

Unused Subs: 21. Andrew LIGHTFOOT, 12. Jarrah CLEAR, 14. Jordan HORN, 15. Yianni TOUMANIDIS.

Yellow Cards: Nil.

Red Cards: Nil.