Metropolitan Police 2-1 Kingstonian
K'S PROGRESS ARRESTED

Kingstonian fell to a 2-1 defeat to the Metropolitan Police at Imber Court in a blow to their hopes of getting themselves into the playoff mix.

In a generally uneventful opening half hour the best chances fell to Kingstonian. Ali Chaaban came closest to opening the scoring as he latched on to a Clayton through ball, held off the defender, only to see his shot come back off the left hand post. The nearest the Met Police came to scoring was when a long cross from right winger Brown drifted onto the top of the crossbar.

The game burst into life in the thirty seventh minute as Kingstonian took the lead. The move started with good interplay between Jenkins and Bird down the left, before a McCrae pass put Traynor through on goal. Centre half Jeffrey mistimed his tackle and brought Traynor down to give referee Tomlinson the simplest of decisions to award a spot kick. This was duly despatched in his usual exemplary style by Traynor.

The lead, however, lasted less than a minute. Met Police midfielder, Tyron Smith, found himself in space outside the area and sensing the defence was fractionally slow in closing him down struck a scorching shot from 25 yards into the top right hand corner.

Whilst the first half had been relatively even, albeit with Kingstonian enjoying the better chances, the second half was a very different matter. Met Police started at a far higher tempo and letting their intent be known from the off, forced three corners in the opening two minutes. Shortly afterwards Jeffrey fired over the bar from close in from a Smith free kick. Kingstonian bounced back and created two great chances as first Hutchinson mistimed a header from close range before a McCrae strike from outside the area was well saved by Butler.

This Kingstonian flurry was short lived as Met Police proceeded to totally dominate possession for the next half hour. However, for all the possession they enjoyed they failed to create many chances, with the best one falling to Maan, who dragged his shot wide. In a rare foray into the Met Police half Kingstonian produced two good chances with 15 minutes remaining. First off Huckle headed into an open goal following a fumble by the keeper, Butler, only to see the goal ruled out as he was adjudged to have pushed a defender in reaching the ball. Next Chaaban was put through by Traynor and, deciding to cut inside, saw his deflected shot spin agonisingly just wide of the post.

Having now appeared to have weathered the storm, Kingstonian fell behind in the 80th minute. Centre forward Palmer decided to try his luck from distance and beat Tolfrey from 25 yards with a well struck shot.

Whilst the introduction of Alimi and Harkin for McCrae and Clayton provided fresh impetus for the push for a goal, Kingstonian were unable to fashion an equaliser in the final few minutes.

The fact that they enjoyed the lion's share of possession and scored with two quality strikes from distance will have left the Met Police followers feeling they thoroughly deserved three points. The fact that Kingstonian enjoyed the lion's share of clear cut chances, which they failed to convert, was something that their followers were left to dwell upon.