ROYAL COMMAND PERFORMANCE

The omens were not good for Kings Langley when they travelled north to the Midlands once again to take on Stourbridge. The home fixture had resulted in a 4-1 reversal in September, when the Glassboys had that promotion look and Kings were without Jordan Parkes and Callum Adebiyi, two of their most influential players. In the event, the outcome was a surprise in some quarters as Langley gave their opponents a goal start, but delivered a textbook team performance to run out comfortable winners with goals from Saul Williams, Stevie Ward and Casey Linsell.

Kings adopted a high back line, a pressing midfield and hard running frontmen and looked dangerous from the off, but opportunities at both ends were limited to a Saul Williams angled shot over the bar and a Tom Tonks low shot turned round the post by Melvin Minter. Both sides were playing some attractive, inter-passing football, but play was delayed when the home side overreacted to a somewhat innocuous coming together and Grocott and Lloyd Doyley were booked. The impressive Gary Connolly suffered a match ending injury soon after and replacement Alex Anderson had hardly got on the field when he was bypassed by a free kick from which Grocott set up Chay Tilt and the winger swept the ball home. If Kings were unsettled by the turn of events, it didn’t show and five minutes later Dean Hitchcock drilled a first time pass into the path of Kyle Connolly on the left flank and his cross on the run was drilled past James Wren by Saul Williams for the equaliser.

The interval came and went and the second half was only three minutes old when Williams intercepted a poor pass out of defence and set Stevie Ward clear for him to calmly slot the ball past the exposed keeper. Away support may have been a drop in the ocean of the large crowd, but they were making themselves heard as the frustration of their counterparts became a tangible entity and the Glassboys’ confidence ebbed. As the hour mark passed, Kings delivered the killer blow with Roddy Collins finding Mitchell Weiss on the left and his cross turned in at the second attempt by Casey Linsell. Stourbridge mounted a series of attacks in the last ten minutes and although the sparkling feet of Chay Tilt on the right gave the crowd some hope of a conversion of his crosses, they floundered on the defensive rock of Lloyd Doyley and Jorell Johnson, who won everything bar two headers from Anthony Dwyer and Jamie Willetts, both of which came to nothing.

Melvin Minter continued his commanding form of late and Alex Anderson recovered from his early setback to complete a back five that, along with Kyle Connolly, was outstanding. Dean Hitchcock and Roddy Collins were an effective shield in front of them, combative and creative, while Casey Linsell, Saul Williams (first goals for the Club for both) and Stevie Ward tested and teased the home defence behind the unselfish work of the irrepressible Mitchell Weiss. Louie Collier and Kane Farrell will consider themselves unlucky not to start, but contributed greatly to a strong finale and from keeper to unused substitute Evans Lamboh, surely a contender for Clubman of the Season, this was a team performance of the highest order. With the return of the two, it gives Chris Cummins the kind of selection problems that managers love!