Inconsistent K’s Held By Rooks
The key to driving round corners isn't to do with whether you use the accelerator, it's when you use it. You can keep a fairly safe, steady speed throughout, ensuring a smooth ride for your passengers. Alternatively you slam the breaks at the last minute, slowing right down for the corner before putting your foot down and bursting out of the corner.
Kkngstonian's 2-2 draw with Lewes was an exercise in mistimed acceleration. The visitors to Kingsmeadow knew that anything short of a win with results going their way elsewhere would see them relegated, and despite their obvious spirit, the gulf in class between the two sides was evident throughout the game. But Lewes kept going as Ks eased up.
It's not to say Ks didn't put their foot down; they dominated the middle portion of the first, as Andre McCollin and Dan Bennett's pace and trickery caused myriad problems down the Lewes left. McCollin should have opened the scoring but opted for a fancy backheel rather than a turn and shot with the goal gaping. It didn't matter. Seconds later, fine work between the pair presented Bennett with a simple rebound from a McCollin shot to open the scoring.
The foot came off the gas. A weak back header from George Wells put Jonte Smith in between keeper and defenders and he made no mistake, slipping the ball past Rob Tolfrey to level matters.
The interval came and the foot went briefly back on the accelerator. Standout Ks performer Joe Turner's fine and cross was poked home at the back post by Mitch Pinnock; 2-1 to the promotion hopefuls against the relegation certainties; if ever there was a time that easing off might be acceptable, with two more games approaching in the next four days, this was it...
And then, obviously, as Ks foot edged further and further away from the pedal, as Bruce Hogg, Pico Gomez and Andre McCollin all went off injured, as the defence and midfield sat deeper and deeper and the accelerator became a distant memory.... Lewes equalised as Jordan Badger's 90th minute header found the top corner.
Four minutes of injury time and Ks foot went back on the gas... Too little, too late. It felt li,e the kind of game that Ks would have won if Lewes had equalised after 80 minutes. But they didn't, so Ks didn't.
Match report by Jamie Cutteridge.
