Kempston 0-3 AFC Dunstable

Matthew Wilmot reports:

Kempston exited the county cup at the semi-final stage at the hands of league rivals AFC Dunstable, having more than matched the visitors for over an hour but were undone by two sublime goals.

The first half was barely two minutes old when a poor clearance by the Dunstable keeper, Perks, fell straight to Jamaine Ivy. The Kempston forward was fouled, however, before he could capitalise. The resulting free kick was deflected for a corner. Danny Watson, Gary Ridgway, Grant Fryer, Ben Shepherd and Ivy would all have chances either deflected wide or saved as the first half wore on, although neither side genuinely troubled the scoreline at the break.
The second half started the way the first had ended; Michael Lyon had a shot blocked, Sam Macrae shot over and Robbie Goodman had a virtually unchallenged header from a corner go just wide. The visitors made Rovers pay after the hour, a breakaway across the middle gave forward BJ Christie the ball in the left hand channel, a fierce early shot from the edge of the box rattled into the roof of the net to give Dunstable the lead. The lead was nearly doubled a minute later when they saw a shot cleared off the line, wasting the follow up.

Kempston were forced into their first change of the night on 75 minutes, the hard working Gary Ridgway landed awkwardly after extending to connect with a cross. He appeared to land heavily and limped off, replaced by Munashe Sundire.

With ten minutes left on the watch, Dunstable doubled the lead. With Kempston pressing forward, a long ball over the top by the visitors led to a misunderstanding between Martin Conway and Robbie Goodman, allowing Christie to nip in and find the empty net. Kempston made another change and withdrew Lyon in favour of Sam Johnson. Shortly afterwards, Jamaine Ivy was subbed for Michael Fisher.

Christie could’ve sealed the visitors victory with a hat-trick, but was superbly denied by Conway when one on one with the Kempston keeper. Dunstable didn’t have to wait long to make it three nil. A couple of minutes from time, right back Massey made what appeared to be an over-hit long ball forward. For all the world it looked to be sailing over the bar, it was only when the net rippled behind Conway that the supporters realised that they had just witnessed something very special. The full back must have been forty plus yards from goal.

Kempston had one further chance in added time to reduce the score line, but it was again deflected wide. In the end, AFC Dunstable ran out comfortable winners. We wish them the best of luck in the final next month.