Aylesbury United 1-0 Kingstonian
DUCKS' DELIGHT
Less than forty-eight hours after beating Aylesbury one-nil at Kingsmeadow, Kingstonian ran out at a strangely packed Buckingham Road looking to double the Ducks' trouble as the home side looked for the three points which would go a long way to securing their Premier League place next season.
A large number of changes were made by Kim Harris, as he re-shuffled almost the entire back-line, whilst the home side was also largely different from Thursday's eleven, having to replace three players injured in the first game.
Photo: kingstonian.net
Still, they didn't seem to be too bothered. With eighteen minutes on the clock, and with the first real chance of the afternoon, they took the lead. Lance Key kicked out of his hands, Steve McGrath headed the ball back, hitting Chris Whelan. It bounced to Craig Maskell who played in Chris Bangura on the left, Key came out to challenge and the striker neatly lifted the ball over the goalkeeper and into the unguarded net. A somewhat strange goal.
A fine move between Dave Clarke and Scott Steele almost brought a swift repost, but goalkeeper Lee Worgan managed to stick out a foot to deny Steele. The move down the left saw one one-two followed by another, leaving the Scotsman to shoot right-footed from just inside the box.
On the half-hour mark a through ball caused momentary worry for the K's defence, but Lance Key sprinted off his line to deal with it comfortably. However, in clearing the ball he somehow managed to land in the only hole on an otherwise perfect pitch, damaging his knee in the process. After hobbling around for a couple of minutes the decision was made to bring on Adrian "sub (not used)" Jones in his place - the substitution of the number one by another number one causing much hilarity.
Photo: kingstonian.net
The save of the afternoon was though provided by neither of the K's stoppers. As half-time approached a free-kick out on the left was sent in by Steele and met at the far post by Whelan. He beat Bangura in the air, but his header struck his challenger on the shoulder. With Worgan already diving to his right, he somehow managed to twist in the air and turn the ball over as he swivelled in midair. A quite fantastic save.
With matches of slightly greater importance upcoming, Scott Edgar was brought on in place of Tim Sills, who was finally able to have a well-deserved rest. Unfortunately for Edgar, he found it difficult to get anything out of a well-organised Ducks defence. Grant Payne forced another save from Worgan after a good move between Steele and Mark Jones, although Steele blasted Payne for ignoring him at the last moment. In fact, the coach was in belligerent mood all afternoon - berating anyone and everyone for not managing to get on the end of some of his fine crosses.
Adam Campion almost doubled the hosts' lead just after the hour when a fine run by Maskell on the right saw him play in the number seven, who cut in and shot narrowly wide of Jones' right-hand post. The keeper then produced a good save of his own when Maskell again set up substitute Matt Rolfe.
Photo: kingstonian.net
Steele saw his late long-range effort deflected and then saved by Worgan, while Max Hustwick attempted a volley from the edge of the box which failed to trouble the keeper. The final effort of the afternoon saw Phil Wingfield's 20 yard free-kick curl around the wall, only for Worgan to push away to the left.
This was a result which was fully deserved by Aylesbury. Whilst they didn't create too many chances, they certainly had the majority of the possession, and ensured that K's chances were few and far between. Had the visitors had their shooting boots on they may have snuck a point - but a home win for both sides can't be argued with.
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Sat 26th Apr 2003 |
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Buckingham Road |
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968 |
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Isthmian League Premier |
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Aylesbury United | 1 |
Kingstonian | 0 |
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1 | Lance Key | | 13 |
2 | Max Hustwick | | |
3 | Mark Jones | | |
4 | Bashiru Alimi | | |
5 | Scott Smith | | |
6 | Chris Whelan | | |
7 | James Pinnock | | |
8 | Dave Clarke | | |
9 | Tim Sills | | 15 |
10 | Grant Payne | | |
11 | Scott Steele | | 12 |
12 | Phil Wingfield | | 11 |
13 | Adrian Jones | | 1 |
14 | Craig Lewington | | |
15 | Scott Edgar | | 9 |
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Gary Ekins |
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