Additional Comments:

All three Lions imports scored two goals in this game, with Ali Rodger, Martyn Barratt and Mark Nicholls scoring the other three. Geof Williams, Dave Petrie, John Heneghan and Danny O’Hanlon also made the scoresheet with 0+1 each.

This was the 12th time that the Lions had played the Stags in the Lions’ 2 1/2 year history, but the Stags had only managed to beat the Lions once, back in September 1984, when the score ended as 5-6. This win took us briefly back to the top of the Division One table.

The match programme of 7/12/86 contained Ronnie Cee’s column, where he had this to say about the Bournemouth game:

“Enjoy our practice match last week against Bournemouth? Na, neither did I! Our 2nd and 3rd lines and lesser experienced players all had plenty of ice time, which I’m sure will stand them in good stead when our 1st line(s) need a breather in our more important matches.

“We had won the game in the first period last week when we showed what we are capable of. We blitzed Terry Ward’s goal and smashed in seven goals in about fifteen minutes. After that it was very much experiment time with a number of different lines being used. Players that caught the eye were Ali Rodger playing on offence and Danny O’Hanlon and Mark Nicholls who both seemed to have a new attitude.

“After saying all this it was very arrogant to ice some of these guys for so long against a team like Bournemouth, who we should have some respect for, but we are now back on top of the table, and with Telford dropping another point at home to Medway we might have to start looking at Peterborough as the main rivals in our push for the Premier…”

Mike Grafton also mentioned in the match programme how he’d gone to watch Slough Jets versus Peterborough Pirates and how impressed he’d been with the Pirates’ new import – #15, Doug McEwen. He said “The #15 shirt will figure quite prominently on the scoresheet come 8th February (when we were due to play Peterborough at home – we lost 14-17).” Little did Mike realise at the time that Doug would go on to be a great import for the Lions the very next season!