Lions FC 7 (Kim 22′; Simic 40′; Reardon 47′, Madle 48′; Shepherd 50′; Walpole 85′; Hatfield 90+2′)
Brisbane City 0
HT 2-0
Lions FC cantered to victory over fierce rivals Brisbane City at Lions Stadium on Saturday evening with three goals in the opening five minutes of the second half to help seal a fourth win in a row and a fourth consecutive clean sheet.
An entertaining and physical encounter came to life early when Shaun Carlos’s 6th minute effort forced an early save from City keeper Jake Clancy.
Clancy was on hand again a minute later to deny Andy Thompson whilst Lions keeper Luke Borean was also called into action just before the quarter hour mark with a couple of saves in the space of 3 minutes to first keep out Adam Edgar and then block a goal mouth scramble to keep the scoreline goaless.
Midway through the half the hosts took the lead in spectacular fashion. Carlos laying off the ball to Danny Kim who let fly from the edge of the box with a powerful strike that flashed past Clancy into the top corner.
With the half nearing its close, Lions doubled their lead. Superb work from livewire Nathan Shepherd who latched onto a neat reverse pass from Marek Madle and drilling the ball towards Clancy’s near post with the City keeper diving low to tip the ball round the post. The resulting corner though saw Lions captain Matija Simic get his head to the ball and guide it inside the far post for 2-0.
From what had been a tight affair in the opening 45 minutes then left everyone stunned in the stands shortly after the restart.
A three minute three goal blitz all but ended the game for the visitors. Inside two minutes of the start of the second term, a deflection wrong footed City keeper Clancy with Nathan Reardon’s strike drifting past the City stopper who was powerless to adjust.
A minute later and it was 4-0 when a powerful run from Reardon saw the midfielder make his way into the box before prodding the ball towards the back post where Madle was on hand to fire home from close range, although Reardon’s effort looked to be going in without Madle’s intervention.
The scoreline was further extended in the 50th minute. Shepherd this time rewarded for his hard work and determination having battled his way into the box and stepping past his opponent to only see his first time effort blocked by an advancing Clancy. Fortuitously though and with a touch of accidental hand ball, Shepherd reacted to the rebound to turned and guide the ball in at the second attempt.

City were shellshocked but nearly responded soon after when Lions switched off for a short period, allowing Edgar to make room before firing his effort against the post with Borean beaten.
With the clock running down and City unable to find a way back, Lions went on to well and truly put their opponents to the sword with two more goals in the final moments.
Substitute Leum Walpole linking up with fellow sub Chris Hatfield in the 86th minute. Hatfield making a run towards the goal line before cutting the ball back for Walpole who made no mistake from 10 yards out to score his first senior goal for the club.
Hatfield himself would then have the final say when embarrassing keeper Clancy with a cheeky free kick in added time that squeezed in between Clancy and his near post to make it a record 7-0 victory for Lions in the history of the clashes between these two sides. The previous record of 6-0 back in 2000 ironically saw both coaches Warren Moon and Darren Sime in the orange and blue that day.
Undoubtedly it was a resounding success and also marked a fourth straight win for the hosts, coupled with a fourth clean sheet. The only goals conceded and defeat thus far being the 2-1 loss to Peninsula Power in the opening round.
Next up comes an away trip to Perry Park where Lions will take on a struggling Brisbane Strikers.
Moony’s Remarks:
“I’m happy and delighted with the result. I know it sounds weird but I still think we can be a lot better. There were things we did really well tonight but there’s still things we can do a lot better. Defensively we gave them a lot of chances even though we were at 5-0, but the mindset is we go for 90 minutes and be more ruthless. That’s something we can talk about and fix during the week. Overall though you can’t not be happy with a 7-0 result.”
On the record win in this fixture:
“I was involved in the previous record when it was 6-0 in 2000 at his ground and I reminded Darren that we both played in that game. We were pushing the boys on as we wanted to better that result from 2000 so it was great we achieved that too.”
Team Line ups:
Lions FC
Borean (gk), Simic, Jarrard, Sawyer, Reardon, Brindell-South, Shepherd, Thompson, Carlos, Kim, Madle.
Subs: Riley (rgk), Walpole, Jelacic, Hatfield.
Brisbane City
Clancy (gk), Beagley, Aulton, Stuart, Solorzano, Edgar, K. Fiechtner, Sadakuni, Nightingale, Bolton, Rigby.
Subs: Sherry (rgk), Sayers, A. Fiechtner, Simpkin, Cutter.
Referee: Jason Crow