Chalfont St Peter 0-3 Kempston Rovers

Rovers set about their task from the off and contrived to hit the bar in the opening minutes of the game as a Luke Heneghan corner fell invitingly for Ben Shepherd, whose volley just didn’t dip enough. Kempston keeper Carl Knox only had one real save of note to make in the first half, a comfortable catch from a long range effort shortly before the half hour. This set up Rovers best spell of the half, as Jake Newman battled for the ball down the left and managed to cross in for Jamaine Ivy to stretch and narrowly miss connecting for a certain goal. The ball was kept alive, and pulled back to Ivy at the edge of the area. His snap shot was straight at the keeper. The teams went in scoreless at the break, but Rovers had marginally been the better side.
Jake Newman had already hit the side netting after very neat interplay with Ivy in the second half before Chalfont really tested Knox, Luke Maguire, with some industrious wing play, forged his way into the area before attempting for the far bottom corner, forcing Knox into a stretching save across his goal. Just past the hour mark, Rovers made the breakthrough. Munashe Sundire played a cross field ball to Ben Shepherd, who took a couple of touches to get it out of his feet before striking a shot across the goal from outside the area. It dipped just beyond the reach of the home goal keeper. The lead was doubled less than ten minutes later, a low ball into Ash Fuller on the edge of the area was flicked on with the outside of his boot. The ball sat up beautifully for Jake Newman to hook across goal, it dipped just under the bar for 2-0. Jake confirmed afterwards that it was intentional and not a cross. Rovers held their hosts at arms length, restricting them to long shots and half chances, before making the game safe in the eighty-second minute. Ash Fuller played a beautiful reverse ball into the path of sub Michael Fisher, who moved to go around the keeper and had his ankles clipped. He remained on his feet to try and retrieve the ball, but the referee had seen enough to point to the spot. Fuller dispatched the kick low to the keeper’s right, a carbon copy of the penalty he had scored in the abandoned fixture. There was time for one last chance for the hosts to register a goal, but Knox produced a superb point blank smothering block to deny sub Chris Henry. Three nil the full time score.
Delighted joint managers Jimmy Stoyles and Gary Flinn were full of praise for the team’s efforts on the pitch; picking out Knox and Newman for special mentions. The win lifts Rovers to sixth place, level on points with fifth place Dunstable with three games to play.

Rovers Line up;
1 Knox, 2 Goodman, 3 Sundire, 4 Boland, 5 Simpson, 6 Stoyles, 7 Heneghan, 8 Shepherd, 9 Newman, 10 Ivy, 11 Fuller
Subs 12 Fisher, 14 Johnson, 15 Summerfield
Attendance – 62
Man of the Match – Ben Shepherd