And so it was not to be, another chance of that first victory slipped away. Though this time the Lions can hold their heads up, the same could not be said for the man with the whistle. Just an indication of how bad he was, Tim Miller was running the touch line and the shed asked him to take over!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Lions started brightly with Jon Boden kicking a 1^st min penalty. 3 – 0 .Birmingham hit back when a knock on was missed (the first of far to many obvious mistakes), the subsequent move led to a penalty in front of the posts, the Lions were caught napping as it was tapped quickly for a converted try under the posts. 3 – 7 

Brum scored two penalties on 10 and 15 minutes as Lions  struggled to contain a by now rampant referee, though Jason Critchey’s decision to take a quick 22 to himself did not help matters and led directly to the second penalty. 3 -10. Jon Boden hit back to make it 6 – 13.  

On 21 minutes Knight scored for Brum with the conversion kicked to extend their lead. 6 – 20.

With half time looming Rob Hurrell took ball from the top of the line out deep in Brum’s 22, good quick ball was moved to Boden who switched back to Alex Taylor at pace who crashed his way over under the posts. Boden added the extra points.

Gareth Collins took a huge tackle just on half time, ouch……you could see the stars.  

Half Time  

Lions 13 – Brum 20

The Lions stared the 2^nd half at pace, moving the ball wider from the bigger Brum pack. Baker had a good run down the shed side, while Reed raced through to give Jenkins a scoring pass……..oh no Mr ref sir said forward pass. By this point he had reached rock bottom, but continued to dig deeper. Justice was done when from the very next move Reed caught the ball on half way, passed to Baker who raced through several would be tacklers to score a quite brilliant try, converted by Boden. 20 – 20. Game on. 

Lions took the lead 10 minutes into the half when Jon Boden kicked another penalty. 23 – 20.  Brum hit back mid way through the half when TPS put in a big hit and it look as if he had turned over their ball, but some how it was shipped out to Baxter who made ground before feeding Knight to run it into the corner. The conversion was missed. 23 – 25.   

Brum pressed home their extra man advantage, he may have been in a different coloured shirt, but he was their most effective performer by far. A series of scrums on the Lions line led to Brums final converted try. 23 -32.  

A late penalty further extended Birmingham’s lead, though the Lions never gave up, they were unable gather any more points. 

Full Time  

Lions 20 – Brum 35

Andrew's musings

Well a neutral observer would be hard pressed to tell who was 6^th in the table and who was bottom and winless. It does seem that referees do come to the Lions with an idea of the result before the game has even started, and then proceed to play to it. Good job the ground had no standing water on it today, ‘cuse today man in the middle would have been out his depth in a puddle. The players deserved better. 

Next week it’s off to Coventry. No doubt former Lion Mark Ellis, now coach at Coundon Rd will have some contracts already drawn up to temp another batch of Lions down the well trodden path along the A45. Reports are that one of this seasons better players is already in talks with Coventry.