Yeovil Town 0-5 Kingstonian
HUSHED PARK

Now let's get some things straight right from the off. If this had been a boxing contest, the referee would have called it off after just a quarter of the bout. This was one of the most one-sided "2nd v 21st" matches ever seen, with the lower placed team completely over-running their more ambitious opponents.

If you missed the build up to this match you will have missed the fact that Yeovil were playing this game just 24 hours before playing one of the most important matches in their history. A win against Hereford on the Tuesday would take the Conference title race to the very last day of the season, and this match was something of an inconvenience to them. For Kingstonian, the competition that had looked to be striving to get in the way of the relegation battle had suddenly become the one chance to rescue something from this harrowing season. For the crowd of 295, it was all a bit strange.

The line-ups mirrored the pre-match situation, with Yeovil including none of the eleven who started their previous league match, whilst K's included but two reserves - namely Adrian Blake and Shaun Thurgood who played at centre-half.

And the game started in the best possible way for the visitors, when Geoff Pitcher scored after just eight minutes. A poor backpass was collected by Eddie Akuamoah on the right and he ran to the goal-line. His cut back was heading for Sammy Winston, but his clever dummy allowed Pitcher to sweep the ball past Christopher Weale from the edge of the box.

Five more minutes passed before the lead was doubled. A free-kick was awarded to K's way out on the right touchline and the tall ones ambled forward. Colin Luckett swung the ball in, the ball somehow eluded everybody and nestled into the far corner of the net.

The strange became bizarre just three minutes later. A precise hoof from Mark Boyce bounced over Bradley Peters and Winston was on it in a flash. His run to goal was thus a clear one, but Peters got back to interrupt it by hauling him down. The penalty was given, and Winston was handed the opportunity to score his first goal since November 25th. He just about scored from twelve yards when his scuffed shot went to the left and Weale dived to the right.

Ronnie Green almost made it four when he headed a Pitcher free-kick against a post, but then on twenty-two minutes the bizarre became completely ridiculous. Luckett had the ball on the right, he crossed to the far post and Winston headed his first goal since 8pm. Relegated Kingstonian were four up against the league's second placed team.

The game was by now, of course, over. The home crowd entertained themselves by cheering as loudly as they could when Geoff "£100,000" Pitcher messed up (and they got quite a few opportunities), the home team looked for some pride and K's looked for more goals.

Blake was called upon once in the first half, and he stood up to the test well. Pitcher lost the ball in the midfield ("hurray") and Richard Parkinson raced goalwards. He shot from some twenty yards out but Blake did well to block. Except he couldn't hold the ball and the in-rushing Andrew Lindegaard looked set to quarter the deficit. But Blake did exceptionally well to get back up and he turned the ball aside for a corner.

The second half was really a bizarre forty-five minutes of football. Lindegaard shot wide and Eddie Saunders saw his header well saved by Weale. Both teams then tested the rigidity of the woodwork, firstly when Lindegaard headed a Glenn Poole cross against the post and then when Winston came within a whisker of completing his hat-trick.

Thurgood - who looked an impressive addition to the squad - played a good ball to Boyce, and another long ball from him found Winston. Weale came out to challenge but Winston did very well to flick the ball over the goalkeeper. One bounce saw the ball move nearer the open goal, but there was just slightly too much air in the ball as it bounced up, hit the top of the bar, and bounced off for a goal-kick.

One mad scramble almost saw a goal for Yeovil when Bradley Peter's right-wing cross hit the far post and the rebound was amazingly turned aside by Blake after Lindegaard's shot.

But with fifteen minutes remaining the fifth goal came. Luckett took a corner from the left and Saunders just missed his header. The ball was sent back in by substitute David Bass and there was the diving form of Saunders to head his first goal for the club.

There was still time for Lindegaard to hit the post again, but the game had been over for more than an hour by then. And so K's progressed to the final of this competition for the second season in a row. And what's more, they deserved it. OK fine Yeovil didn't have a very good team out, but the eleven who started for K's played with poise, confidence and composure. Of course that's easy to do when you're four up after twenty-two minutes, but it just goes to show: in a cup match, there's nobody better than Kingstonian.

Shame about the league games.