Visitors take the spoils

Kempston slip to their fourth home reverse of the season, despite taking the lead from the spot. Dunstable Town showed enough resilience to complete a second half turn around and take all three points.

Before the game, there was an impeccably observed minutes silence ahead of Remembrance Weekend next week and also to reflect on the tragic events last week at Leicester City.

Rovers started brightly and were asking questions early on as Shane Bush appeared to be tripped in the area after just two minutes. Josh Crawley then put over the bar from a deep Harlem Sambu cross. The visitors then sparked into life, John Sonuga hitting the post after a free kick wasn’t cleared properly, then a Dan Trif set off on a run, beating several players on his way to a left foot shot that required a strong parry from Martin Conway. Nathan Tshikuna had presence of mind to thread Crawley through, but the forward’s shot from a tight angle drifted across the target. On twenty minutes, Crawley intercepted a back pass and looked to round Connell in goal, but the Dunstable keeper impeded his progress sufficiently for the referee to point to the spot and book Connell. Ben Shepherd stepped up and dispatched the kick low to Connell’s left and into the net, just out of the young keeper’s reach. Less than two minutes later, Shepherd found Crawley with a cross field pass, the forward then squared back to Shane Bush. Bush’s shot was deflected by the legs of Connell and went inches over the bar as Rovers looked to be clicking into gear. From the resulting corner, Alfie Powell’s powerful header went over the bar. Dunstable got themselves back into the game just before the half hour, a clumsy challenge in the area by Daniel Akubuine resulted in a penalty to the visitors. Chris Wreh placed the ball calmly down the middle of the goal to level the scores. Josh Crawley had two chances to put Kempston back in front before the break, glancing wide from an Akubuine cross and then an acrobatic scissor kick saved by a combination of Connell and post.

Kempston may have begun the first half the brighter, but it was roles reversed in the second period. Hassan Sheikh tested Conway with a direct header from a corner, before six minutes after the break, Taylor found some space on the right and cut the ball back into the danger area where Saul Williams was waiting to sweep the ball into the opposite bottom corner to give Dunstable the lead. Ben Acquaye had a fizzing shot go wide of the mark as Rovers looked to level things up straight away. Midway through the half, a poor clearance fell to Shane Bush, who squared the ball back to substitute Aaron King, on his Rovers debut, but the forward’s shot was well saved by Connell. Bush’s attempted follow up was bravely blocked to preserve the visitors lead. Another scramble in the box a couple of minutes later saw Seb Simpson and Robbie Goodman have great chances to level the game. Goodman’s effort cleared off the line as Dunstable rode their luck. With time running out and Rovers pressing forward, gaps appeared at the back and Kempston were thankful when Williams couldn’t capitalise on a four against one breakaway. Simpson, King and fellow sub Mason Spence all had great chances to level things up with minutes left to play, the final chance of the scramble falling to King, but his shot went over. As the clock inched closer to injury time, Dunstable sealed their win. Another counter attack found space on the right, where Trif crossed in to find sub Rio Dasilva at the far post with enough time to compose himself and slip the ball under Conway to make it three one.

The defeat drops Kempston down one place to eleventh in the table. With the County Cup game against Luton Town moved back two weeks to the twentieth, Rovers have no midweek game for the first time since mid September. The next game for The Walnut Boys is Saturday, when they make the journey to Histon to face Cambridge City.