No. 20 Saturday 1st November 2014. F A Vase – 1st Round Proper
Berkhamsted 0
Kings Langley 3 (Adebiyi 17, Campana 32,35)
The bouquets went to Kings Langley as they delivered an impressive performance to brush aside Berkhamsted in the F A Vase. Such was the intensity of their attacking play that visiting keeper Charlie Crowley made his first meaningful collection on the quarter of an hour mark and two minutes later Kings went ahead with a superb individual goal from Callum Adebiyi. The defender picked up the ball well into his own half, took a sixty yard run at a retreating defence, exchanged a neat one-two and beat Carl Tasker with the coolest of finishes. Both the Kings’ midfield and the forwards were employing fast paced pressing tactics, giving the home side no peace on the ball and winning back possession on the rare occasions that they lost it. When Berkhamsted finally threatened, forcing a Danny Hutchins clearance off the line, Kings responded with two hammer blows. Nick Jackson ran at the defence, slipped the ball to Dean Hitchcock whose onward pass was met by Alex Campana to deliver a trademark acute angled rocket into the far corner. Barely pausing for breath, Mitchell Weiss nicked the ball from a home player, outstripped the defence on his own sixty yard run and unselfishly passed across Tasker for Campana to side foot home. The Comrades did get behind the Kings defence as the half closed, but Ryan Laville hit a post from two yards out and although they raised their game in the second period, Langley’s high-tempo tactics went to the end, their long range passing became even more accurate, and Nick Jackson hit a post with Alex Campana’s following shot cleared off the line. Connor Toomey merits a mention for a non-stop midfield display, but It was a majestic all round team performance, whose attitude was best summed up by a flying save by Crowley in the fifth minute of time added on to deny Berkhamsted any consolation.