On babbling brooks, the A3 and a Kingstonian match
report by Taimour Lay
On one side of Colliers Wood United’s tidy little ground is bucolic Beverley Brook. Water gently babbles through shaded trees adjacent to Fishponds nature reserve. A wooden bridge takes the traveller over a quiet path before emerging behind the goal. On the other side of the ground is … the A3. Six lanes of brutal concrete, the rush of combusting metal coffins creating an unending stream of background noise that drowns out all sound of birds, be they flying feathered vertebrates or football managers demanding tactical shape.
On a night when K’s ran out 8-1 winners, the team showed both the natural beauty of attacking play but also perhaps the functional ugliness required to remain competitive throughout the five dozen games to come. The Isthmian is a long dirty road, after all, not a stroll through the woods.
Tackles flew all night. Tommy Kavanagh fought sleep deprivation to rampage in midfield. Elliot Buchanan ran the channels. Simon Cooper rallied his defence. And when the home team scored a consolation to make it 7-1 deep in the second period, a furious Ben Harrison screamed in frustration at the failure to keep a clean sheet. This is a K's team intent to achieve something.
Andre Coker scores in the first-half after Gus Sow bustles in the box.
Lining up again with four at the back, Andre Coker down the left and Buchanan upfront, K’s were quickly in devastating form while attacking the A3 end. Gus Sow opened the scoring when set clear by Kadell Daniel and he swept the ball past the onrushing keeper. Within 20 minutes, it was 2-0, Buchanan curling a trademark left-footed finish before converting a penalty to make it three.
Soon it was 4-0, Coker stabbing home after good work from Sow in the box. K’s didn’t wait for the half-time whistle, the former Bromley forward bagging his brace with a fine finish from 15 yards.
Facing the babbling brook end after the break, K’s remained relentless. Kavs charged 20 yards into the penalty area before being felled like a woodland tree. Buchanan stepped up to convert and complete his hat-trick.
Elliott Buchanan strokes home a penalty.
Omarr Lawson was next in on the act, a finish with the outside of the right boot, before Colliers Wood managed a consolation to make it 7-1. But Coker grabbed his third after former Palace starlet Corie Andrews was denied and the ball rolled invitingly across the face of goal, impudently back-heeling the ball in.
Kingstonian: Rob Tolfrey, Jerry Puemo, Ben Harrison, Simon Cooper, Jake Hutchings, Tom Kavanagh, Andre Coker, Gus Sow, Elliott Buchanan, Kadell Daniel, Omarr Lawson.
Subs: Juevan Spencer (for Jerry Puemo, 46m), Corie Andrews (for Elliott Buchanan, 52m), Tom Howard, Lewis Pearch (for Gus Sow, 63m), Michael Kamara (for Jake Hutchings, 52m), Tutu Henriques (for Simon Cooper, 69m), Adam Neale (for Kadell Daniel, 69m), Jay Bradley (for Tom Kavanagh, 69m), Mason Whitnell (for Rob Tolfrey, 69m).
Goalscorers: Gus Sow (12m, 0-1), Elliott Buchanan (18m, 0-2), Elliott Buchanan (31m pen, 0-3), Andre Coker (36m, 0-4), Andre Coker (40m, 0-5), Elliott Buchanan (51m pen, 0-6), Omarr Lawson (56m, 0-7), Colliers Wood number nine (75m, 1-7), Andre Coker (77m, 1-8)
Attendance: 0
