New Defence Keeps Clean Sheet at the New Defence
After the recent departures of Aaron Goode, Sam Page and Claudio Vilcu, Kingstonian’s trip to Horley Town’s ‘The New Defence’ ground in the Surrey Senior Cup was wonderfully appropriate. Pleasingly for the new defence’s architect, Leigh Dynan’s side kept their second clean sheet in four days, as Ks progressed to the next round with a 2-0 win.
The Ks manager picked a relatively strong side as his side began their last remaining cup campaign, and it was only some strong work from George Hyde in the host’s goal which kept the scoreline respectable. But if Hyde was Horley’s most impressive performer, it was new Ks’ striker (new being an adjective which describes most of the Ks team) Daniel Ajakaiye who was the liveliest player on the pitch. He’d already had one decent effort palmed away by Hyde before he attempted an alternative route to goal, impudently chipping the ball over the glovesman from the edge of the box, the stranded Hyde could only look on in relief as the ball bounced off the post and away to safety.
As Ks continued to dominate their lower league opponents, the deadlock was soon broken. Both wingers Alec Fiddes and Ambrose Gnahore combined down the left, and while Gnahore’s strike wasn’t the cleanest, his well-directed effort bounced off both posts before eventually nestling in the corner to give Ks the lead. Five minutes later, as the clock ticked past the half hour mark, the tie was as good as settled. A neat through ball put Ajakaiye through on goal and his cool finish left Hyde with no chance, doubling Ks lead.
Despite the lead, Kingstonian kept pressing right up to the half time whistle. Hyde produced two more good saves to deny curling efforts from Fiddes and Gnahore and another effort from Fiddes struck the bar before bouncing earlier as Ks hit the woodwork for the fourth time in the opening period (admittedly two of said woodwork strikings combined for the opening goal, but stats are stats).
With the contest as good as over, the second half was a more sedate affair. Kingstonian continued to dominate possession, but seemed perfectly happy to sit on their lead and see out the game. Alec Fiddes contrived to miss two chances from a total of five yards out while a bit more pressure from the home side ensured that Ks new defence got something resembling a workout.
And so the game meandered to a finish, ending a fine, professional performance for Kingstonian; it was very much a case of Ks “doing the job” in their first Surrey Senior Cup outing of the season.
Match report by Jamie Cutteridge.
