Potters Bar Town report
match report by James Maw
A much-improved attacking performance from Kingstonian wasn’t enough to secure a much-needed three points, as Simon Lane’s side lost 3-2 to a Potters Bar team that had scored just once in their previous eight league outings.
The defeat left K’s just two points above the drop zone with six games to play, after Herne Bay battled to a shock win at playoff-chasing Carshalton.
Bar No.7 Lewis Smith got the first goal of the game after seven minutes, shimmying past two defenders on the edge of our box, then firing low into the bottom corner.
Beyond that, the first half was not a great advert for the Isthmian Premier League, with a host of overhit passes, miscontrolled balls and fluffed clearances suggesting both sides were struggling to adapt to a sodden pitch.
The second half provided far more quality - with K’s producing more than their share of good football after the break.
Darnell Goather-Braithwaite in particular provided plenty of cut and thrust - twice the midfielder went on mazy runs that ended with powerful shots that hit the Potters’ bar.
Sadly those two moments of individual brilliance sandwiched a second Potters Bar goal from Charncey Dash, which left us with a mountain to climb.
Just as all hope seemed lost, came a substitution that really swung the game. David Nyarko - a Reading U21 who spent some of this season on loan at Weymouth - came on for his K’s debut, and within 90 seconds had won a penalty.
The 20 year old ran onto a through ball and knocked it past the keeper before being brought to the ground, with Tom Collins coolly scoring the first goal of his second spell with K’s from the spot.
Five minutes later, the pair combined again. This time when Collins nudged Nyarko’s powerful shot over the line after a half-cleared corner.
The momentum looked likely to be with Kingstonian, who were denied what appeared a clear-cut penalty when Goather-Braithwaite was wiped out while in the process of pulling the trigger. Yet now, perhaps because they had something to lose, K’s started to play with a little more caution.
That meant the final stages were something more akin to the first half in terms of quality, with the tension rising as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes.
And K’s were undone in injury time when they failed to clear a long throw and Bar substitute Adam Martin prodded home a dramatic late winner with his side’s third meaningful shot of the game.
Potters Bar Town: Louis Chadwick, Finlay Titchmarsh, Calvin Dickson, Wilson Chingoka, Alieu Njie, Joe Russell, Lewis Smith, Max Granville, Charncey Dash, Theo Alexandrou, Makise Evans.
Subs: Adam Martin (for Alieu Njie, 42m), Cheyce Grant, Connor McShane, Emmanuel Okunwobi (for Makise Evans, 69m), Joshua Rusoke (for Theo Alexandrou, 75m).
Kingstonian: Rob Tolfrey, Michael Abnett, Hugo Odogwu-Atkinson, Lee Lewis, Matt Drage, Darnell Goather-Braithwaite, Charlie Greenwood, Keane Anderson, Tom Collins, Alex MacAllister, Hakeem Adelakun.
Subs: Ibrahim Bangura (for Keane Anderson, 84m), Jacob Bancroft (for Michael Abnett, 90m+1), Sean Bonnett-Johnson, David Nyarko (for Alex MacAllister, 67m), Benj Purcell.
Goal scorers: Lewis Smith (7m, 1-0), Charncey Dash (65m, 2-0), Tom Collins (69m pen, 2-1), Tom Collins (75m, 2-2), Adam Martin (90m, 3-2)
Attendance: 191
