1st Team v Saffron Walden Town

No. 24    Saturday 22nd November 2014.     F A Vase – 2nd Round Proper
Saffron Walden Town          6 (Lawrence 28, Calver 32,70 pen, Harper 49, Turner 54, Solkhon 92)
Kings Langley                       5 (Jackson 14, 65, Weiss 61, 76, Atkins 74)
Of the 64 ties on offer in the fifth stage of the F A Vase, the clash between Saffron Walden Town and Kings Langley looked to be one for the enthusiast on recent form alone. Town had won a staggering eleven games on the bounce until a midweek League Cup slip  and Kings had won nine consecutive games conceding only two goals. Few could have predicted an afternoon of high drama and an amazing scoreline that ensured that the crowd of nearly 400 in the Catons Lane ground were left exhausted, but justified that they had not only made the right decision, but were left to reflect on a game that will live in the memory for many years to come.
The afternoon began with a moving one minute’s applause for Town’s stalwart Dennis Savill, who tragically passed away at the age of 52 eleven days earlier and Kings were privileged to join their opponents and Dennis’ family as a mark of respect on the centre circle throughout this tribute.
Minutes later, the match began and it was Kings who were out of the blocks the fastest, Nick Jackson hitting the post after just two minutes and as they continued to have the better of both possession and attacking options, they were rewarded on 14 minutes when Mitchell Weiss delivered a fierce shot that Floyd Croll could not hold and Nick Jackson reacted quicker than the defence to rifle the ball home. For the next ten minutes, Kings continued to rule and the odds were on a narrow away win, but when Charlie Crowley was called into action with a tip round the post, the resultant corner saw defender Ben Lawrence rise above all others to head the equalizer. Four minutes later, a long throw in was deja-vu for Kings as an unmarked Craig Calver slotted the ball home to give Town the lead. Half time arrived with the pendulum having swung in favour of the home team, but surely not far enough to be beyond reclamation for a team of Kings’ recent pedigree.
Nine minutes later, that question appeared to have been answered in the negative, as an astute flicked through ball saw Louis Harper steer the ball home and minutes later a raking cross onto the head of the tall home centre forward, Graeme Turner, appeared to have settled the tie at 4-1 to the discomfort of the disappointing visitors. However, this was only a prelude to the second twist in the tail (or tale), as a team totally unused to being in this sort of situation this season, shook themselves down, and executed a precision move as Alex Campana’s throw in got Nick Jackson behind the defence to cross for Mitchell Weiss to head in off the post. Four minutes later, Connor Toomey put a through ball to Nick Jackson, who hit it on the volley over his shoulder and the odds had shifted again at 4-3. Cue twist three, as a vicious low cross into the Langley box was adjudged to have been deliberately handled by Jack Pattison. A disputed decision, but ball to hand incidents are sometimes judged as deliberate and if a penalty is awarded, as in this case, such is life. That the referee chose to predict that the ball would have travelled on to the home centre forward, positioned behind the offender and dismissed him for preventing a goal scoring opportunity, was deemed harsh by home supporters and beyond belief by the visitors. The penalty was duly dispatched by Calver and with twenty minutes to go, that surely sealed the fate of Kings Langley on an afternoon to forget, save for a brief but ill-fated revival.  Not so, as a team that was possibly entitled to agree with that summary decided that they would not accept the perceived injustice and stormed back for their ten men to totally dominate the last twenty minutes. Within four minutes of the set-back, a Mitchell Weiss reverse pass fell to the feet of substitute Daryl Atkins and the pace of his run saw him blast the ball past Croll with his first touch since entering the fray forty seconds earlier. Within another two minutes, a corner was swept into the Town box and Weiss pounced to silence the home support and send the small contingent of travelling faithful into ecstasy. Unlike the F A Cup, the Vase decrees that extra time is used on the first tie and it became a race against time for Kings to ride the adrenaline and land the knockout blow, before having to drag their numerically disadvantaged limbs into a further half hour of play. Town seemed to have weathered the storm, but back came Kings for Floyd Croll to make two superb saves from Atkins in the dying minutes and then see Weiss hit the post in the very last minute.        
There was a feeling in the away support that the chance had been missed and the afternoon finally delivered an almost inevitable moment two minutes into extra time when an unnecessary foul outside the box saw the free kick forced home by Jamie Solkhon to swing the pendulum for the fifth and final time. Or did it?. Nick Jackson demanded a superb tip over by Croll, Daryl Atkins stabbed the ball over and Jackson deserved better for an unceasing afternoon’s work when he was given a sight of goal with virtually the last moment of the encounter, only for his touch to deny him a deserved hero’s role. And so ended a superb match between two gifted teams, both totally committed to attacking football. Both sides played their parts, with Town cast as worthy winners, delivering a fitting tribute to a sadly missed colleague and fortune demanding that Kings be cast as the gallant losers, battling courageously against overwhelming odds. No-one typified that never-say-die attitude more than Connor Toomey, who at times appeared to have mastered the trick of being in more than one place at once and was the main reason that it was never apparent that Kings were down to ten men for the closing fifty minutes. All at Kings Langley wish their hosts for the day the very best of luck for the next round!