Heneghan’s two for joy

Kempston arrived in Norfolk for their third away game in a week across three different competitions to face a Dereham Town side that boasted Joe Gatting in their starting line-up, nephew of England cricket ace Mike Gatting.

The home side were nearly stumped after just thirty six seconds as the Magpies’ defence appealed for offside against Josh Crawley as the Rovers hitman bore down on goal, possibly believing himself to have been in an offside position, Crawley’s effort lacked his usual gusto and it was safely fielded by Pride in the home goal. Gatting then had a chance at the other end, put through by a long ball, his long range lobbed effort drifted wide to the boundary. Twenty minutes were on the clock when Rovers broke the deadlock. Nathan Tshikuna twisted and turned in midfield before twitching the ball through to Luke Heneghan on the edge of the area, the midfielder turned and fired a shot into the top corner of the net. Just three minutes later and Rovers were convinced they should have had a penalty, Shane Bush was pollaxed from behind in the area in an aerial dual, resulting in him needing treatment for injury as the Dereham defender came straight through the back of him. With the ball bouncing loose in the area, the referee immediately stopped play for the head injury. With the entire crowd waiting for the spot kick to be awarded, no one could quite believe that the game was re-started with a drop ball ten yards away from the penalty area. Bouyed by their lucky escape, Dereham began to threaten. Beaumont hit the post with a long range free kick ten minutes before the break before he was threaded through on goal to lift the ball calmly over the on rushing Martin Conway to equalise. Ebbage had a late chance to put the hosts ahead from a corner, but hit the ball over the bar and clean out of the ground.

The second half began with Hipperson snatching at a chance at the near post for Dereham before his side hit the bar with a header from a corner. Gatting then had a glorious chance from a long ball, but Conway smothered his effort before the hour. From then on, it was one way traffic as far as creating chances was concerned, Tshikuna hit the post after a neat team build up on the edge of the Dereham box, Daniel Akubuine headed over after a late run into the box to get on the end of sub Robbie Goodman’s cross. Akubuine then had a clearer chance with fifteen minutes to play, getting a lucky break off the defender and surging into the box. Pride was out smartly to smother the danger at his feet. The home side appeared to be flagging late on in the face of the pace of Rovers attacking threat and with ten minutes left, Rovers hit the front again; substitute Benjamin Acquaye threaded a ball into the feet of Luke Heneghan and from the edge of the box, the midfielder curled a beauty into the far corner of the net for his sixth of the season. The dust had barely settled from those celebrations when Kempston made sure of the result. Nathan Tshikuna intercepted a pass and surged forward, spotting runners in space, he weighted the perfect through ball for Acquaye to meet and sweep underneath the advancing keeper. In the dying embers of the game, Tshikuna, Acquaye and Goodman all combined beautifully down the right hand side to put a cross in for Ty Deacon, the forward couldn’t make proper contact with the cross however and what could’ve been the goal of the game wasn’t to be. Kempston advance to the next round while some dissenting voices from the home contingent were asking serious questions of their management.

Kempston return to league action at home on Tuesday night with a local derby against Barton Rovers, by which time Kempston will have learnt who they are to face in the next round of the FA Trophy.