London Lions F.C.

London Lions
Full name London Lions Football Club
Nickname(s) The Lions
Founded 1995
Ground Rowley Lane, Arkley
Ground Capacity 1,500 (200 seated)
Chairman Andrew Landesberg
Manager Andrew Landesberg
League Spartan South Midlands League Division One
2016–17 Herts County League Premier Division, 1st of 16 (promoted)

London Lions Football Club are a football club from Barnet, London, England, who are the Saturday team representing the Maccabi London Lions football club. They are currently members of the Spartan South Midlands League Division One.

Having begun in the Herts Senior County League over 20 years ago, the club has grown and built on this success in recent years. The club is affiliated to the Hertfordshire County Football Association, and is a FA Charter Standard club[1]

History

In 1995 the players and officials of Sunday league side Maccabi Association London (MAL) decided to join the Hertfordshire Senior County League with the Club making its debut in the 1995–96 season and was renamed MALEX.[2][3] They remained an all-Jewish team, the squad in the first four years based on MAL players who were generally playing in the Hendon and District Sunday League and the Maccabi Southern Football League. The club was initially managed by Paul Wise and Malcolm Newman. They were joined by former Brentford striker Francis Joseph, sometimes assisted by Chris Ramsay in one of his first coaching roles.[3]

During the 1999 close season, the club revised its management structure, and decided to change its name to London Maccabi Lions, whilst retaining its all-Jewish status.[4] This brought in an influx of new players, from a number of Maccabi League Clubs and under the management team of Bobby Fisher and Adam Solomons the club lost only three league games as they won the Division 1 title by 4 points.

The club lifted more silverware in 2007 when they defeated Metropolitan Police to lift the Herts Centenary Trophy.[5] In the 2009–10 season the team under the stewardship of Tony Gold and Steve Grenfell won the Herts Senior County League Premier Division, winning promotion to the Spartan South Midlands League Division One.

This promotion was made possible by a ground share with St Albans at Clarence Park, in order to meet the higher league requirements - and the team's nomadic existence continued for a few seasons as Lions also played at Hemel Hempstead and Broxbourne Borough V. & E. F.C..[6] In the 2010–11 season they added a second Herts Centenary Trophy beating Letchworth Garden City Eagles 3–2.[7]

On 11 August 2012 London Lions became the first Jewish team to win a competitive match in the FA Cup since Wingate beat Acton Town 8-1 in 1948/49 season.[8] The 2012-13 season also saw the club win Division One of the Spartan South Midlands League, and gain promotion to the Premier Division for one season.[9]

They were relegated the following season, and in 2015 resigned from the SSML and re-joined the Herts Senior County League but with hope for a fresh resurgence now the team after returned home to Rowley Lane's newly upgraded facilities and a new generation of players committing to the team.[10]

This was to be rewarded with renewed success under manager Andy Landesberg; when his young team won the Anagram Records Trophy in 2015-16, followed by a treble in 2016-17; winning the Herts Centenary Trophy, Aubrey Cup and Herts County Premier title.

Ground and Club

London Lions moved to Rowley Lane, Arkley in 2002.

Having previously played SSML games at various locations, like St Albans City and Hemel Hempstead due to league requirements, the facilities at the Alpha Stadium were upgraded in 2015 with a new 200-seat stand named the Alan Mattey Stand along with floodlights; this now gives the club the ability to play at Step 5 as well as FA Vase and FA Cup games where required at Rowley Lane.

The wider Maccabi London Lions club has over 40 Adult, Masters and Junior teams playing in regional Sunday leagues based out of the Rowley Lane facilities.

Prior to 2002 home grounds included The American University in Bushey, Copthall Stadium (now Allianz Park), and Gosling Stadium in Welwyn.

Honours

League honours

Cup Honours

Records

Club records

Player records

References

  1. ↑ "HERTFORDSHIRE CHARTER STANDARD CLUBS (By FA Charter Standard Category)" (PDF). 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  2. ↑ MALEX at the Football Club History Database
  3. 1 2 "Welcome to London Lions Online Club History". Londonlions.com. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 LONDON LIONS at the Football Club History Database
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Clubs". Goalrun. 2010-04-23. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  6. ↑ "Ground share deal for Broxbourne | Hertfordshire Sports News & Football Fixtures & Results | Hertfordshire Sports Headlines". Hertfordshiremercury.co.uk. 2013-03-21. Retrieved 2013-03-28.
  7. ↑ "Football Club History Database - Hertfordshire County Cups 2010-11". Fchd.info. Retrieved 2013-03-28.
  8. ↑ "Four-midable Lions march on in FA Cup | The Jewish Chronicle". Thejc.com. 2012-08-14. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  9. ↑ "London Team Is Built on One Religion but Has Evolving Identity". NYTimes.com. 2013-04-27. Retrieved 2013-06-16.
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ "Newsletter No 35 By Bill Scholes :: Spartan South Midlands Football League News | Goalrun". Spartansouthmidlands.goalrun.com. Retrieved 2013-06-16.
  12. ↑ "Welcome to London Lions Online". Londonlions.com. 2000-09-17. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  13. ↑ "Lions will learn from FA Cup defeat, says Gold | The Jewish Chronicle". Thejc.com. 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  14. ↑ "London Lions progress in FA Vase | The Jewish Chronicle". Thejc.com. 2012-09-19. Retrieved 2012-09-28.

Coordinates: 51°39′5.918″N 0°14′48.556″W / 51.65164389°N 0.24682111°W / 51.65164389; -0.24682111

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