K’s Defeated Yet Again
Friday night. We've all been there. You've just splashed out on a particularly large round and now have to navigate your way back to your mates without spilling a drop - balance is absolutely crucial.
The same can also be said of constructing a successful football team - finding the right balance between attack and defence can often be the difference between a frustrating side and a successful one.
The early weeks of the new season have seen some matches in which Ks have defended relatively solidly, yet struggled to create chances at the other end, and others where the defence has looked unsteady, but the attack has looked devastating.
Friday night's Bostik Premier League clash with Dorking Wanderers was perhaps another case of the former.
Kingstonian's best chances of the first quarter both fell to Shaun McAuley - the first comfortably saved by Dorking keeper Slavomir Huk, the second just wide of the post.
Dorking always looked a threat, but were generally kept in check, with the golden chance of the first half instead falling to Louie Theophanous.
Greg Cundle's drilled cross rocketed across the six-yard box, leading to a textbook goalmouth scramble that only ended when our No.10's backheeled effort was hacked clear.
That flashpoint - combined with the onset of an other-worldly downpour - seemed to galvanise the Ks fans gathered behind the goal, who created an atmosphere befitting a Friday night under the lights.
With that roar as the backdrop, Theophanous also had Ks' next two chances - first he unleashed a bending drive that sailed wide of the far post, before two minutes later cutting in from the left and seeing a low, drilled shot parried by Huk.
That effort was the last of the opening 45, one in which K's had shown a few flashes of ingenuity on the ball and generally looked solid in defence - all the more impressive given two members of that back four, Tommy Brewer and Jay Gasson, were being deployed in less familiar positions.
Sadly it wasn't just the rain that eased in intensity after the interval - Ks' attacking rhythm also slowed, too.
Just after the hour, Wanderers went ahead. The visitors overloaded Ks' left flank, with Matthew Briggs eventually finding the time and space to fire low past Tolfrey and into the far bottom corner.
That goal seemed to knock the wind from Kingstonian sails for 20 minutes, as it wasn't until the final ten minutes of the game that the hosts had Huk worried, with Lamont's set-piece delivery and Faal's trickery of particular concern.
The closest K's came to leveling was when Lamont fired over an injury time free-kick, but the late flurry didn't bring an equaliser. Yet again for Ks, it just wasn't to be. Despite arguably our best performance of the new campaign, we were beaten 1-0.
"I thought the performance was there for everyone to see,"manager Leigh Dynan said at full time. "I thought it was a tight game - there wasn't much in it either way."
Next up for Ks will be another local derby at home to Corinthian-Casuals on Bank Holiday Monday, and the gaffer is adamant his team can finally secure their first three points of the season.
"I'm confident," he said. "You have to go into every game with confidence, believe in what you're trying to do, and stick with it."
Now, about those drinks...
Match report by James Maw.
