1st Team v Codicote

No. 51   20th April 2013.     Spartan South Midlands League – Division 1
Kings Langley                3 (Jimmy Armstrong 2, Jack Johnson 15, Gary Connolly 46)
Codicote                         0
Kings bid to ensure a top six finish gathered pace with a sixth consecutive victory against a side with similar expectations. A flying start saw Craig Lynskey’s run arguably halted by a dubious tackle in the box, but Jack Johnson seized on the loose ball to set up Jimmy Armstrong for the striker’s hundredth goal in two seasons in Kings colours. It got better on fifteen minutes when Jimmy Armstrong pounced on a throw in, but miscued his shot and the alert Johnson again collected the rebound to rifle home a vicious shot from an acute angle. Kane Dougherty produced a looping header over the bar in reply, but as the visitors began disputing every decision, the referee had his hands full with an intriguing running battle between Craig Lynskey and Codicote skipper James Taylor and the striker was desperately unlucky to see a fine angled shot hit the post on the stroke of half time. Within forty seconds of the restart, Kings sealed the match, when the impressive Jack Johnson, revelling in a wing back role that the visitors failed to get to grips with, split the defence for Gary Connolly to see his low cross-cum-shot helped into the net by Taylor. However, when his unfortunate trip on David Iwediuno resulted in a penalty, Ross Hampton came to his rescue with a save from Kane Dougherty’s spot kick to preserve the clean sheet.  Gary Wallace had slotted comfortably into the central defensive trio, which resulted in Codicote feeding on scraps and Joe Gallagher, Ben Long and Connolly dictated a passing game that continually hit double figures as Langley saw the game out, while still creating half chances for the Armstrong-Lynskey combination up front.       Line-up:- (3-5-2)