Both sides attacked with pace from the off and Kings had a slight edge in the first ten minutes, Jake Anthony testing Jack Hopwood and then firing over, both from Bradley Smith corners.

That changed when ex-King Sonny French, transferred back to his former club last month, came back to haunt Langley, flicking the ball home following a devastating left wing run and cross by Tom Cove that caught Kings cold. The visitors responded with a well worked move that finished with Charne Lemba firing just over from the edge of the box and a Declan Phillips penetrating run through the heart
of defence ending with a shot just wide. Fine margins, and the Ducks broke to carry out a lightning raid on their right flank by Luqman Kassim, playing a one-two with Halatyn, before firing past Moore from twenty yards.

Bradley Smith was ubiquitous in his pursuit of a goal in his fifth consecutive match, but he received some close attention from the home defence that bordered on the aggressive. He did, however fashion another chance for Kings, with a run and shot that was again just wide of the post.

The second half continued at the same furious pace, but the Kings defence were showing the strain, with the new central pairing of Charne Lemba and Kalan Lisbie finding the lively home forwards a very different proposition from the Stotfold attack of three days earlier.

Consequently, errors crept in, balls were surrendered cheaply and there arrived an incident where two close range fierce shots were
cleared off the line. A corner from Stallard in the 73rd minute was met by Henry with a powerful header but his effort was cleared off the line, bouncing out to French who saw his shot blocked and cleared. Then Lapacinskas saw a shot from 20 yards well saved by Moore; the ball falling to St Clair- Burton, who saw his goal bound effort cleared off the line by Lemba.

Not to be outdone, Kings attacked until the end and reprised their opponents’ cliffhanger when a Josh Anthony shot was blocked on the line and the same fate awaited Bradley Smith’s effort with the rebound.

So the 100% record over the four away League games this season came to an end as Kings could not find an answer on the night, while the good times seem to be returning to United at last.