1st Team v Sun Postal Sports

No. 28    Saturday 28th December 2013.     Spartan South Midlands League – Division 1
Sun Postal Sports            2 (Pooley 13, Lewis 79)
Kings Langley                   1 (Connolly 40 pen)
The local derby between two top four teams lived up to its billing with a pulsulating encounter that left Kings wondering how they were going home pointless. From the opening seconds, when Adam Hallissey’s run was denied by Ross Hampton, they took the game to Sun, dominating possession, culminating with Connor Toomey’s fierce shot rattling the underside of the bar and bouncing down onto the line. The home side weathered the storm however and in their first meaningful attack Nathan Pooley was given wide space to surprise Ant Ladyman with the angle and ferocity of his shot to give Sun a surprise lead. Kings picked up the pace again and forced corner after corner, but desperate defending saw goalbound shots from Dean Hitchcock and Tom Carter take vital deflections and other opportunities missed. But as half time approached, a Tom Carter wing run into the box ended with the slightest of trips and skipper Gary Connolly kept his nerve to dispatch the penalty. The interval was well received by Sun who regrouped and the second half was a much more even affair, with Kings chances being fewer and Sun going closest with a Pooley chip just over the bar. As the contest became more full-blooded, it became more likely that the next goal would settle it, and so it proved, with Kings conceding a free kick just outside the corner of the box and as the ball swung into a crowded area, Ashley Lewis’ head got the vital touch. The game ended much as it had began, with Connolly’s peach of a through ball reaching Hallissey just outside the area and at the same time as the outcoming Hampton. The collision was sickening, but accidental, and as the final whistle sounded, the visitors’ post match analysis probably centred around the old adage of taking your chances. It was one which Sun exploited to the full.