After a lay off of two months, we started the new year with a fixture against probably our strongest contenders for the premiership title, Billingham Crusaders, in a cup match. Those who had taken part in the pre-season friendly always knew that this was going to be a tough, uncompromising contest.

On Tuesday nights, we have been working hard on maintaining our shape, organising ourselves tightly and making it difficult for teams to operate offensively against us. Rog stressed the need to make sure that we were particularly vigilant for the first twenty minutes and accept that we would almost certainly be defending more than attacking. That proved to be the case, and apart from one header from some loose defensive man-to-man marking, Billingham’s attack was totally nullified and we started to string some good passes together, which saw us begin to take them on in their half.

Billingham were limited to their chances and just as we were beginning to assert some control, we gave the ball away cheaply in their half, which resulted in a break-away by Billingham, ending in us conceding a penalty. It was hard to take given how hard we had worked and how well we had performed as a defensive unit. Billingham scored and the game began to drift towards half time, when an over-hit ball went through to Andy Bensley in goal, who had it easily covered. A Billingham player in his desire to get to the ball, was however late in his challenge and made contact with keeper Andy on his shin resulting in a tib/fib fracture to Andy’s left leg.

The game was halted for 65 minutes whist Andy received medical attention on the pitch and was then taken to hospital. The referee, having seen the extent of the damage inflicted on Andy, decided to produce a red card and send the Billingham player off. As the incident occurred bang on half-time, the referee said that he had blown for half-time and that when play resumed, it would be the second half.

With Billingham down to ten men, it has to be said that they still had more than their fair share of possession, but were once again finding our defence impossible to break down. We began to take a grip of the game and after a series of corners and penalty box incursions, Ste Farish poked home an equaliser that never looked like being added to before the end of normal time.

In the first period of extra time, Billingham had their second player of the game sent off, for dissent resulting in his second yellow card. However, despite this, Billingham had already scored a second goal, and with players going down with cramp and fatigue there was only one other scoring opportunity for Kings, when Jamie Dunn went past three Billingham defenders and from an impossibly tight angle, cheekily chipped their keeper only to see the ball sail agonisingly inches over the bar.

And so the game ended 2 -1 in Billingham’s favour, and though Billingham had the lions share of possession, Kings will feel that they could have got more from the game but for limited options on the bench and the unfortunate loss of keeper Bensley in the first half.

How to sum up a game like this: it is not easy. Everyone pitched in and there was commendable discipline and spirit shown in what can only be described as a tough match. However, five players had outstanding games for Kings: Michael Farish played really well at left back and then showed real courage when he went in goal for the injured Andy Bensley, bravely going into contact on three separate occasions similar to the one where Andy had received his injury; Duncan McAuley was huge in defence and never put a foot wrong all game; Matty Bayston was equally impressive in midfield going toe-to-toe with the Billingham midfield and never stopped trying; Jamie Dunn, to whom Billingham gave the man-of-the-match award, was a permanent thorn in the Billingham defence, feeding off scraps, but holding the ball up well and presenting a muscular presence to the opposition; and finally, we have John Belmont, who was simply magnificent and my man-of-the-match; he was everywhere and never once took a backward step. Where a couple of other players were carrying niggling injuries, these five were our stand-out players; not one of them ever shirked his responsibility or ever gave less than 100%; we will need everyone to be like that for the rest of the season.

What Have We Learnt:

Only individuals can truly assess how determined they were and how much they were up for the game.
When we stay disciplined and keep our shape, we are a very difficult team to break down and score against. We limited a clearly very good, technically gifted group of players to a few half chances, a goal and a penalty in 120 minutes of play. Forget the fact that they were reduced to10 and then 9 men; they used all of their substitutes and this was a major boost for them, whereas we had to use our only substitute to cover for Andy. We may have had 11 to their 10 in the second half, and then their 9 in extra time, but we didn’t have more than a handful of players still running in extra time.
Like all teams, we are at our most vulnerable when we attack, as was shown when we conceded the first goal. We need to hold a higher line when we are in the opposition half and squeeze more tightly onto opposition players.
We need to keep playing as a team, stay focussed, praise and encourage each other and keep talking.
My one major criticism: we did not support the man in possession of the ball anywhere near as much as we should or could have. In training, I keep emphasising that the person on the ball should be given at least two outlet passes and that means making yourself available and wanting the ball.

Quote of the Week:

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”
Elbert Hubbard (American writer and philosopher)