Metropolitan Police 1-1 Kingstonian
SLEEPING POLICEMAN

It seems as though no matter what chance Kingstonian are given to win a game at the moment they cannot take it. Even with the gift of a fifteenth minute penalty, and the dismissal of Carl Hutchings, K's were unable to beat the Met Police after another poor second half display undid a lot of good work before the break.

K's could scarcely have had a better chance to win. Even after Dean Lodge had missed the penalty that resulted in Hutchings' red card, for a foul on Tony Reid, a lucky break in the box allowed Adolph Amoako to score his first goal for the club and put the visitors a goal up at the break against ten men.

A poor second half display though saw the ten home players outplay the eleven visitors, and although the 60th minute equaliser came from a deflection, Stuart McIntyre's men could hardly claim it was an unfair result. K's did almost nothing right after the equaliser, failing to attack with any vigour and passing in a very sloppy manner.

After a good early save by Luke Garrard, it was as early as the thirteenth minute that the game seemed to turn in K's favour. Amoako picked out Lodge who expertly slid the ball into the box for Reid, only for the striker to be tripped from behind by Hutchings. While Hutchings' foul was not intentional, by the letter of the law the referee had no choice but to send him off.

Lodge stepped up to take the penalty after goalkeeper Will Packham eventually ceased with his stalling tactics. The penalty was poor though, lacking power and straight at Packham who saved with his legs.

Undeterred, K's continued to have the best of the game. A Reid backheel allowed Lodge to get in a powerful cross and an Amoako backheader forced a good save from Packham that prevented what would have been a fine goal. The breakthrough came on thirty-one minutes from a long ball. It bounced off Reid's back and Amoako and Dave Newman both went for the loose ball. It ricocheted off Packham's knee and back to Amoako, who headed over the goalkeeper to put K's ahead.

Martyn Lee suffered a nasty injury which would eventually see him come off on fifty minutes, but initially he seemed undeterred and caused a number of problems in the long period of injury time. First, he fired a twenty yard free kick over that he had won after a cynical foul by Newman and then another long distance effort was spilled to Amoako who did not quite have time to get his rebound shot on target.

K's had a good chance to seal the game after the interval. A Lodge cross found Reid eight yards out but he headed well wide. Amoako came close from outside the box but soon yet again this season a counter-attack saw K's concede. Craig Brown's original cross was cleared but eventually the ball fell to Stevens, whose deflected shot beat Garrard.

Four minutes later K's had a chance to restore the lead, but Packham made a brilliant save to tip Scott Corbett's header onto the post after a Jon Coke cross. That would be K's last chance of note though and they spent the rest of the game trying to hold on against ten men.

K's did actually defend well, with Julian Sills and Steve Potterill continuing their excellent form from Saturday. The best chances for The Blues were efforts from Stevens and Tony Finn that went wide, but what frustrated K's fans was the utter lack of attacking invention. The visitors did not even look like fashioning another chance, much less scoring, as their dismal run continued.

It is clear that the talent is there for K's to do well, but their second half performances are consistently far too poor. It seems to be the opposite to the problem that plagued Ian McDonald's Kingstonian side who always started slowly - the pressure is on McIntyre to now find a solution and get K's playing for ninety minutes. Leading in seven of the last eight games but winning none of them is unacceptable - and it is leaving the long-suffering K's fanbase feeling more and more frustrated.