Kings Langley celebrated the Bank Holiday Monday with a series of firsts –
first win of the season, first clean sheet, first ever victory over illustrious
neighbours Chesham United, and first goal from new signing Rene Howe,
while stand-in management team Liam Walsh and Danny Perman ended
their two match tenure with the satisfaction of accumulating four points out of
a possible six. The duo rang the changes for the second match in forty eight
hours, bringing in Stevie Ward and Lee Stobbs for Dean Hitchcock and
Davide Pobbe, but Chesham started the better, laying siege to the Langley
goal, the highlight of which was a fierce Matt Bevans shot that produced an
equally impressive tip over by Charlie Burns. When Kings did break out,
Stevie Ward missed a chance, but any blushes were spared by the flag,
while former King, Oran Swales put his chance wide of the post. There was a
let off for the home team when Gary Connolly’s full blooded attempt to put
the ball behind cannoned back off the post and then Charlie Burns thwarted
Bradley Clayton when he was through for a one-on-one and then finger
tipped a Ryan Blake shot round the post. Kings were having their moments
at the other end, with a Mitchell Weiss header saved and a miscue from the
striker when well placed, while the referee waved away home protests when
Callum Adebiyi was blatantly pulled when surging past the last man. But the
defining moment came rather out of the blue when, with two minutes to go to
the break, a somewhat bizarre diagonal clearance from United’s left was
intercepted by Mitchell Weiss, who drove forward before slipping the perfect
through ball to Rene Howe, who showed his pedigree by holding off a
defender and slotting the ball calmly past Alex Tokarczyk.
The second half saw Kings now having by far the best of it with chances for
Stevie Ward and Mitchell Weiss not profited from and a thunderous header
from Jorell Johnson headed off the line by another former King, Connor
Toomey. Unable to put the result beyond doubt, Kings saw out the
remainder fairly comfortably for a confidence building victory and move up to
16th after a satisfying weekend.