The visiting Wolves were eager to bounce back from last weekend’s shock loss to Leeton and responded in the best possible way – a five-goal haul against the competition’s second-best defensive side.

O’Brien led the charge for Tolland, notching four goals including two penalties from the spot, while Nicholas Young added the Wolves’ fifth in a strong offensive performance.

Lions coach Mark Mellish could only doff his hat to O’Brien’s rich vein of form as the Wolves’ spearhead.

“He scored four good goals and while two of them were penalties, he did play a really good game,” Mellish said.

“He know’s what he’s doing and when you know what you’re doing and you’re getting good service up front, you’re going to play well.”

Though the Wolves scored three goals in the opening half, Tolland skipper Richard Skidmore was particularly pleased with his side’s performance in the second stanza.

“It was a really good second half, I thought,” Skidmore said.

“Young’s a tough place to come and we were pretty short on numbers, so we’re pretty happy to get back to our winning ways.”

A reflective Mellish said his side was “unlucky” not to score more goals but conceded improvements could be made.

“I’d say 5-2 probably isn’t a good description of how the game went but Tolland played well and took their chances,” Mellish said.

“We lacked that cutting edge but we certainly weren’t disgraced and we matched it with them for most of the game.”

Despite the loss, Young are still chasing their finals dream and Mellish wants to steer his side deep into the knockout stages.

“Getting into the six is a good goal but we don’t want to be there just to make up the numbers and we need to put the teams beneath us to the sword,” Mellish said.

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