K’s Rocked by Two Goal Burst
It was around this time last year that K’s produced one of their most enterprising performances in recent seasons, grinding out a goalless draw in Bognor with many first teamers unavailable, with Aaron Goode injured early on, and with Peter Dean leading the attack.
Such defensive discipline has not, unfortunately, been a feature of the early weeks of 2016/17, and so it was once again that a couple of lapses in concentration cost K’s against the same South Coast opponents on Monday evening. That in spite of a good showing that merited more.
Ryan Moss, the standout performer so far, was unavailable. Pico Gomez went up front, and behind him Youssef Bamba, Aaron Lamont and Joe Turner connected effectively, moving the ball with some zip on a wet Kingsmeadow pitch. The interplay was excellent, and aided by the ball-winning skills of Michael Onovwigun and Sean Bonnett-Johnson in central midfield.
Possession was retained better than at any other point this season, and led to three good first-half chances. The first fell to Gomez who should have done better than smash his effort high and wide; the second landed at Bamba’s feet but the outcome was the same; the third came to Lamont whose goalbound shot was blocked.
Bognor threatened occasionally - Rob Tolfrey had a couple of saves to make - but for the most part they were on the back foot and required to deal with a very different kind of threat to the aerial up-and-at-em bombardment posed by Billericay at the weekend.
But football is a cruel mistress and on the hour, an even game tipped in Bognor’s favour when Rob Tolfrey slid out to collect a loose ball in his box and subsequently let it slip from his grasp, allowing Jimmy Wild a tap-in.
Five minutes later, it was two. A low cross from the left was not dealt with and there was Alex Parsons to sidefoot home unchallenged. Tolfrey certainly couldn’t be blamed for that one.
K’s looked a little short of ideas. Devoid of striking options to bring off the bench, in stark contrast to the early weeks of the season, Saidou Khan was brought on to go wide right, presumably for his height. It was down that side of the pitch that K’s won an 80th-minute penalty.
It is hard to convey in words quite what an extraordinary decision it was, let alone explain why it was given. What is true is that the referee pointed to the spot when Gomez and Sami El-Abd came together harmlessly in the box. Perhaps it was for the latter’s theatrical fall, and consistent moaning prior to that.
Gomez scored – just – and nearly equalised immediately after weaving into the box from near the touchline. His shot flashed agonisingly wide, though, and with it went K’s chances of getting something tangible to show for their efforts.
Terry Buckman, photographer for Bognor Regis Town, has compiled an album of photos from the game: Click here to see them.
Match report by Rupert Cane.
