Fair Point!

An unchanged Kings recovered from the shock of conceding within 50 seconds of the kick-off to go in at the break a goal to the good, but had to be content with a point at the end of an entertaining, competitive encounter at newly promoted Peterborough Sports. Langley heads were definitely still in the dressing room when, seemingly distracted by a prone Mitchell Weiss in the opposition half, the central defence allowed Mark Jones to get goal-side and finish with aplomb past Melvin Minter. For the next few minutes Kings were under the hammer as the home side turned on some rapid attacking football, but they weathered the storm without further damage and began to impose their own brand of pace and flair, with Roddy Collins hitting the post with a powerful 25 yard drive. Matty Campbell-Mhope and Kane Farrell were looking dangerous down the left side, with the former having a low shot held by Lewis Moat, before the Turbines conceded a disputed corner. In a replay of Saturday’s opener, Farrell sung in the kick, Weiss beat the keeper with a header and this time a defender cleared off the line. The ball found its way back out to Kane Farrell, now on the edge of the box and he executed a perfect half volley into the top of the net to give Kings parity. That was nearly short lived when James Stevenson and Lewis Hilliard combined well down the right to set up Jones with a cross, but his point blank header hit the post. The visitors were now in the ascendancy though and a Weiss pull back for Charlie Ruff forced a good save out of Moat, before the tenacity of Ruff saw him win the ball and slip a superb through ball to Eoin McKeown, who finished past keeper and defender with what appeared to be a slow-motion strike. Good value for their lead, Kings came out for the second half in confident fashion, but the home side had been galvanised during the interval and both sides entered into a battle with no quarter given as they searched for the vital fourth goal of the game. That duly arrived in the 65th minute when Dion SembeFerris received the ball and drove it home with precision just inside Langley’s left hand post. As an absorbing encounter reached its crescendo, the Turbines looked the most likely to break the deadlock, but Minter pulled off a telling save and Jorell Johnson cleared off the line to ensure that honours were even at the final whistle. That was probably a fair reflection on balance and while both sides will feel disappointed that they didn’t take maximum points, for Kings especially, this may well turn out to be a very valuable point gained in the grand scheme of things.

By Roy Mitchard

After the game Kings Langley Manager, Dean Barker said, "
All in all a very good point away from home. Horrendous start but we bounced back well to go in at half time ahead. Second half we had opportunities to finish the game, which we never took, then we concede a sloppy equaliser. Sometimes in football when you can't win you make sure you don't lose and we did that against a very good side. Still unbeaten and plenty of positives to go into training Thursday then our trip to Stratford Town FC on Saturday to look forward to."