Northwich Victoria 2-3 Kingstonian
SCOTT COR-BLIMEY

A lucky Kingstonian team took three points away from The Drillfield, in a match that came alive in the final ten minutes, having seen K's reduced to ten men and trailing by a 2-1 deficit.

K's started brightly and forced an early corner, though nothing was to come of it. Though Pitcher and Leworthy combined well, it was the home team who were looking most likely to score early on and went close when Stewart Terry raced on to a through ball on the left but was denied by a neat covering tackle from Harris. Barrett was soon tested in the K's goal from Tait, and Steve Walters, captaining the home team, placed a near-perfect shot with his instep that crept just wide of the left post. All K's could offer in reply was a wild lob/shot from Leworthy.

K's first real chance occured when Pitcher won posession in midfield and threaded a ball to David Leworthy on the edge of the box. The ball trickled out to Eddie inside the area but his shot went just wide of the left upright. However, The Vics midfield maestro, Steve Walters, skillfully curled the ball around the wall from a free-kick about twenty-five yards out, again just missing the left post.

K's seemed uninspired in this game. Though the play around the box was good, no K's shirted player could deliver the telling 'final ball'. Meanwhile Northwich were exploiting the space on their left, as Wayne Brown seemed slightly troubled in his role of the right of the three centre-backs, and this weakness was exploited though Mustafa did well to relieve some of this pressure.

In the 37th minute the game finally came to life as Northwich were awarded a penalty as Stewart was adjudged to have been fouling Martin Filson in the Kingston penalty area. Walters duly stepped up and converted the spot kick.

This, at last, woke up the K's team, and produced some attacking football. Gary Patterson combined well with Joe Francis, enabling 'Patto' to unleash a great shot, and from then till the end of the half it was constant K's pressure. Things looked up even more when the Northwich central defenders started an argument with each other. The face-to-face encounter was only stopped when another home player pulled one of the defenders away, and Eddie calmed the other down. K's were clearly determined to get back into the game and from a Pitcher corner, a mad scramble ensued culminating in Eddie striking the bar and then Stewart hitting the post. From a resulting corner Harris went agonisingly close as he flicked on a header which cleared the cross bar. However, at the interval K's were behind, and Northwich were happy to be holding on to their lead.

Kingstonian looked to start the second half as they finished the first, and although Williams had a good effort smothered by Barrett, K's looked the stronger team. David Leworthy turned provider as he put in an excellent cross from the right which led to a corner on the left. The unlikliest of cominations occured when the three K's central defenders were involved in the awarding of a penalty, as the ball spilled out to Harris. His amazingly mis-kicked cross found its way to Wayne Brown who headed it back into the area towards Simon Stewart who was awarded a penalty after Filson had mistaken him for a climbing frame. Luckett stepped up to take the penaly and cooly put it home, low to the right.

Northwich re-took the lead following a free-kick on the right. A dubious decision, one which saw Patterson receive a yellow card for dissent, enabled man-of-the-match Walters to flight a beautiful ball to thug-of-the-match Filson, who headed back across goal and into the net.

At 2-1 down K's were fired up and frustrated, which led to Joe Francis being booked for dissent after his public disagreement with the referee, Mr. A Kaye from Bradford, who refused to give K's a corner which was surely deserved. Mr. Kaye was not very impressive in this match and missed a very bad attempted elbow to the head from a Northwich mid-fielder, and didn't seem bothered with Victoria's blatant attempts at time wasting. In a last throw of the dice Chapple put on Holligan and Corbett and took off the tiring David Leworthy and Joe Francis, who didn't have the best of games.

K's chances of an equaliser looked promising through Mustafa's and Akuamoah's determination, but took an almighty plummet when Patterson received his marching orders. The challenge he made arguably warranted a caution, but having already been shown the yellow card he had to walk to the dressing room. But this only seemd to fire up the K's team more. In a moment of genius, an attempted headed clearance by Filson looped to Tarkan Mustafa just outside the penalty area, and the wing back struck a superb left foot volley into the bottom left corner of Greygoose's goal.

With six minutes left, both teams were looking to take all three points from this game. But it was only three minutes later that K's scored the winner. Holligan received the ball on the left of the 'D' and dribbled around a few defenders before, as his father described "unselfishly" passing to the other K's sustitute Scott Corbett. With one touch to control the ball and the second to slot it home, it was a superbly taken goal from Corbett giving him two in a week and sending the travelling K's fans into ecstasise.

But it was not all over. Barret stopped well, Wayne Brown made an excellent block tackle on the by line, and Eddie Akuamoah seized a chance when he intercepted a back pass, and then went close with a shot.

But 3-2 was to be the final score, and though lucky to get the win in such a late show, it seems to make the draw at Telford seem like just a distant memory.