LEGION LIONS JUNIOR FOOTBALL CLUB
20 Sep 2006

The history of the team the Legion Lions all started in the season 2003/2004. How the team become about was when the team HRBL had too many players, so the management decided to split the team into two teams. One team would be called HRBL and the other Legion Lions. They would still be a short sided soccer team with the intention to get back together when they went up to the eleven aside soccer. When the teams split they took a few more players on and when it was time to play the eleven aside soccer there was more than enough players to make two eleven aside teams. This meant that the two legion teams would stay apart but would face each other in the same league.

The man that would take the Legion Lions to some great achievements was a young enthusiastic man called Lee Bibby. He would be the manager to try and take the Lions to the top of the league. Lee who was a level one coach took it as a challenge to try and do his best with the players he had. Hoping for that great achievement of becoming champions of the Halton District Junior League. Lee knew that it was going to be hard work and that he would have to give up a lot of his time to take a kids football team on. He loved the game of football and his enthusiasm to run a kids team was over powering. Lee needed to get someone in to give him a helping hand with the lads to help him with the training and to help on match days. So he asked one of the parents who had a lad in the team if he was willing to give a helping hand. This parent had already been helping him out with the short sided soccer team and he was only too pleased to carry on helping with the eleven aside team. this person who was going to help Lee with the task of trying to get the Lions up and running was a young man we all know as Ricky. He offered to help Lee with the team and soon enough they where up and running.

The team started the season 2003/2004 with some good results and they got off to a flyer. That season they went to a final to finish runners up and they also finished runners up in the league. This was a great achievement for a manager who had not much experience on how to run a kids football team. the task of trying to get the lads to win a championship was very hard and lee knew it wasn’t going to be easy so what he did was to try and take some good things out of the previous season and build on it. one of the first things he had to do was get more players as they where moving up to the eleven aside football. During the seasonal break Lee had a look at the new players that came down and soon enough the legion lions where taking shape.

The season started and the lions got off to a good start. They won a few games in the league and where doing well in the cup games. After a while the lions looked like real contenders for the league and one of the cups people starting sitting up and taking note of the hard work the lions where putting into their football. It was a very hard season but the lions fought on and got themselves into a final. Things looked good in the league with the lions breathing down the neck of one of the favourites who was picked to win the league but the lions wasn’t going to just give up without a fight. In the end the lions finished runners up in the league but went on to win the cup in the final.

The cup final was a great achievement for the lions and their new players who came into the squad to help win it. they won the Tony Miller cup 2-0 against Moorfield JFC. The whole day was a big success and everyone who went to support the lions enjoyed every minute of the day. The trophy was taken back to a winners party in one of the local pubs in the area. The players got cheered as they lifted their trophy and it sounded great. As parents we were all so proud of all our lads and it gave us a great feeling inside. We had brought flags, banners and a lot of us put blue wigs on to support our team. The lions picked up a winners trophy that season and a runners up trophy for the efforts in the league.

The following season things changed for the Legion Lions they didn’t get off to a great start and they found one of the other teams who were a new team in the league too strong for them and this team went on to lift the league trophy and another cup. The Lions dug in and tried their best and ended up finishing third in the league. This wasn’t a big disaster as they tried their best and ended up in third place in the league, which was not a bad result in the end after the dreadful start they had. The Lions are a team who won’t stay down they will pick themselves up and try again and who knows in the next season they might do a lot better.