Aylesbury United 0-0 Kingstonian
THE LONG AND WINDY BUCKINGHAM ROAD

Kingstonian travelled to Buckingham Road buoyant after their first league win versus Hayes in midweek, and hopeful that they could pick up another win against 23rd placed Aylesbury United in this Ryman Premier League match.

The recent wet weather meant that all but three of the afternoon's matches were postponed, but it was the near gale-force wind that proved the biggest talking point of this game. On an afternoon when it was something of an achievement to clear your own penalty area, both teams did exceptionally well to produce something akin to a normal game of football.

With the winds at their backs in the first half it was the visitors who took the game to their opponents. They created two fine chances in the opening five minutes, with Kevin Davies pushing a Matt Pattison shot around his post and Matt Elverson heading over from the resultant corner.

With the Aylesbury defence playing as far up the field as possible, Kingstonian came close to breaking through their offside trap on numerous occasions, only for the linesman's flag to deny them the chance of a clear run on goal.

It was though from an Aylesbury attack that possibly the best chance of the half came. Lewis Pritchard ran down the right, only to lose out to a tackle from Scott Steele. His instant pass found Stafford Browne on the right, who laid the ball back for Liam Collins. He sent in a deep cross for Chris Bangura, but the striker failed to connect from the edge of the six yard box.

With the wind refusing to drop, the difficult conditions were shown for all to see when Aylesbury tried to clear a throw from near their own corner flag. An attempted clearance went more up than out, and landed at Bangura's feet deep inside Aylesbury territory. He combined well with Steele to set up Collins on the corner of the penalty area, but his flicked right-footed shot went disappointingly wide.

Many watching were of the opinion that, along with the half-time change of ends, so the two teams' fortunes would swap over. However, the home side failed to make the conditions work for them as Kingstonian had in the first half, with both sides creating enough chances to have stolen the points.

An early corner fell to Elverson on the penalty spot, but this time Davies got a hand to his headed effort to keep it out. The ensuing scramble could have seen the ball go anywhere, but the right boot of Jamie Moss finally saw the ball cleared from under the Aylesbury crossbar.

Browne - without a league goal from open play since October - spurned his best chance of the afternoon with half an hour remaining. A poor back header from Thomas Alabaster fell short and the K's striker nipped in to chip the ball over Davies. The wind caught the ball and pushed it slightly left of goal, where Browne once again connected. His effort though actually went backwards, ending up going off for a throw on the opposite side of the pitch.

Collins sent a late effort crashing into the side netting, but all of the good defensive work from Kingstonian was almost undone in the final minute. The visitors failed to clear a throw from deep inside their own half, Pritchard picked up the ball and from the edge of the area fired in a shot which shaved the top of Key's bar.

This was another game that can be marked down in the "should have won" category. K's were totally dominant in the first-half, and even against the wind in the second created the lion's share of the chances. That they didn't was once again down to bad luck and poor finishing in equal measures. With an incredibly difficult month coming up, three points were essential, because none of Bishop's Stortford, Canvey, Hendon or Hornchurch will be easy.