Nothing Casual About This

In September 1949, two youngsters were part of a 500 plus crowd at Home Park, Kings Langley to see their local village team take on the famous amateurs of Corinthian-Casuals in The FA Amateur Cup, resulting in a not unexpected 3-1 victory for the visitors. Home Park has long since been replaced by the houses of Roman Gardens and the Cup has morphed into the FA Trophy, but yesterday those two gentlemen were there to see Kings Langley finally gain revenge with a 3-0 victory to advance to the final Qualifying round of the FA Cup.

It was a winning start for Kings’ new manager, former Watford Director of Youth Football, Chris Cummins and a fitting finale for Interim Manager Ryan Jackett, who has been superb in that role and will now form part of Chris’ management team. There were no surprises in the Langley line-up and they started at pace, with a speculative shot by Mitchell Weiss just wide, before the tone of a somewhat robust encounter was set with a fifth minute booking of visiting Mathias Bakare. Harry Crawford put a curling shot just past the post, but a minute later Kings reverted to the long ball with a good old-fashioned clearance by Lloyd Doyley, latched onto by Mitchell Weiss, who showed strength and no little skill to win the ball while closely marked, shrug off the defender, cut inside and find the net with a shot that had sufficient power to continue its goalbound journey via the shoulder of diving keeper Dan Bracken. Kyle Connolly was the next name into the book as the home team reacted to some strong arm tactics, while Bracken was perfectly placed to block a first time Max Hercules shot from a Doyley cross. Casuals finally produced some moments of danger on the half hour when a Nathan Pinney cross found no takers and then a flowing move and right wing cross saw Shaun Okojie’s effort just past the post.

The second period could have started better for Kings, when Roddy Collins was booked and Mitchell Weiss robbed Bracken and with only the defender on the line to beat, put the ball straight at him. To his credit, the striker spent the next fifteen minutes seeking an atonement which duly arrived when a move between Josh Coldicott-Stevens, Harry Crawford and Charlie Pattison was finished by Weiss with a superb volley from the latter’s cross. Kings now had breathing space and within two minutes they could see the finishing line as Roddy Collins rose majestically to head home a Max Hercules corner and by the time Casuals’ frustration boiled over and Muhanad Maan was shown a straight red for a raking challenge on Gary Connolly, jubilant home fans were long since beginning to celebrate another step in this remarkable journey.

As for the aforementioned two gentlemen who introduced themselves and then quietly left during the post-match euphoria, the Club would be delighted it they could contact me via the website to arrange to be our guests of honour at a home match of their choice, to continue our all too brief conversation