MINTER WONDERLAND

Kings will appear in the Herts Senior Challenge Cup semi-final for the second time in three years and will host St Albans City on 10th March, after beating Stevenage on penalties. Melvyn Minter was the hero of the night after superbly saving a penalty during the match and repeating the feat in the penalty shoot-out.

There was a full debut for 17 year old Jack Wood, who started brightly with a cross for Casey Linsell to beat keeper Sasha Bastien, only for the shot to be cleared off the line. Langley had the better of early possession, but when the visitors finally did begin to threaten, Melvin Minter pulled off a double save and when Emmanuel Sonupe beat the offside trap to go one on one with the keeper, he was equal again to the task, saving bravely at the winger’s feet. The only other chance of the half saw Edu Toiny-Pendred rob a defender of the ball and bring a full length tip round from Bastien.

The resumption was accompanied by the inevitable visitor, rain, and was only three minutes old when the referee spotted an infringement in the box and awarded Stevenage a penalty. Ben Kennedy stepped forward and Minter guessed correctly to make the save to the left at full stretch. It seemed that both custodians were destined to catch the eye and as the conditions worsened, almost turning to snow, Sasha Bastien
denied Will Hoskins when the striker was through. Jack Wood had been enjoying a very satisfactory debut, but on the hour the youngster was clipped in full flight across the box and was to take no further part in the game. To add insult to injury, no penalty was awarded, to the general disagreement of the home support. The players struggled manfully in appalling conditions, but chances were generally limited to a Jordan Parkes shot past the post and a Ben Kennedy effort that actually hit the post at the other end.

And so to penalties again, a repeat of the finale of the previous round for Kings, while it fell to Stevenage to start the proceedings. The rain, that had turned to a wet snow at times, obligingly halted and Paddy Reading delivered a strike that saw Melvin Minter replicate his earlier penalty save and cue celebrations for the young and raucous contingent of Kings supporters behind the goal. Jordan Parkes, Will Hoskins and Gary Connolly made no mistake for Kings and both Ben Kennedy and Yasin Arai did likewise for Stevenage to make it 2-3, before Mackye Townsend-West blazed his spot kick over the bar to leave Edu with the honour of calmly converting to send Kings into the semis.

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