THE Coffs United Lions have stamped their mark on this year’s NCF Premier League competition with a roaring 6-1 victory over Westlawn Tigers.

The Lions put on a commanding display, with two goals from Joel Hampson and additional goals from Martin Kelleher, Hunter Bellamy, Azad Qasim, and James Brown securing the three points.

This impressive win propelled the Lions into third place on the league table.

Despite a sluggish start, the Lions found their groove halfway through the first half and quickly established their attacking combinations.

The team’s cohesive play and strategic approach proved too much for the Tigers, who were unable to keep up with the Lions’ attacks.

“Westlawn started physically strong with confidence,” said Lions coach Luca Paolacci.

“We did not start like that and we hadn’t been very precise passing the ball.

“It took 20-25 minutes to adjust and we scored two goals in a few minutes, then the opposition lost their confidence and we finished the first half 4-0 up.

“Second half we controlled the game and we scored another two goals, then Westlawn scored one goal to the top corner.

“We did not play enough games in the preseason so l am happy with what the boys are doing.”

Next week is the battle of the big cats as the Lions take on table leaders the Coffs Coast Tigers
“Next week we play the Tigers, they are one of the best teams in the comp, so it will be a hard game,” Paolacci said.

“We won’t do anything different in training, we need to be at our best every weekend because l don’t think that there are any easy games in football.

“You must perform great to make it easy,” Paolacci said.

By David WIGLEY