A stormy afternoon

Kempston Rovers arrived at Histon to face Cambridge City with Thomas Wyant making his league debut for the club after being drafted in to replace the departed Conway.

The hosts began the brighter and saw Ryan Sharman drag a shot wide in the early minutes after receiving a cut back in the area. Rovers had to wait until the quarter hour before their first attempts on goal, first Shane Bush had a header deflected wide then moments later, good work on the right saw Ben Shepherd cross in, Liam Gooch got a hand to the cross to tip it up and cause Bush to turn, he laid it back to Josh Crawley. Crawley squared to Ben Acquaye, his first time shot was strongly blocked by Gooch in the City goal. Then the heavens opened. The downpour was unrelenting for the rest of the game, causing a few players to slip and slide. After the half hour, Hateley Mercer was cautioned for a slide tackle that appeared to be late. From the free kick, the attack broke down but wasn’t cleared and Josh Simpson, making his first City appearance in ten years after returning to the club, curled over. Josh Crawley had Rovers best chance of the half ten minutes before the break, found by the long throw of Mercer, his sidefooted effort was comfortable for Gooch to deal with. There were two further cautions for Kempston before the break and a further flash point as Ben Acquaye tangled with an opponent. Amid Cambridge claims the young winger kicked out off the ball, City’s Josh Oyinsan was seen shoving McNulty in front of the referee. The match official brought the two sides together and asked for calm rather than dish cards.

After the break, Kempston should’ve taken the lead, a surging run from Acquaye saw him thread a pass to Bush who squared the ball back toward Josh Crawley, but the forward couldn’t quite stretch enough to turn the ball in. Moments later, City should’ve scored, Oyinsan produced a lung-busting run down the right hand side and crossed in for James Hall, but the City marksman sidefooted over the bar from inside the six yard box. Ben Shepherd was the fourth Kempston name in the referee’s notebook when he slid in from behind on Towner. Just before the hour mark Cambridge did have the ball in the back of the net, a corner played in from the right appeared to missed by Wyant and was bundled in on the line only for the referee to give a free kick for a foul on the keeper. Oyinsan was booked for an over-zealous protest at the decision. Shortly after the hour, tempers matched the weather as Rovers joint manager Gary Flinn protested to the referee that Shane Bush was being held at a throw in, already warned in the first half Flinn was dismissed from the dugout. Olunkanmi drew a smart save from Wyant as City looked to press the game before Ben Acquaye had two long shots in as many minutes deflect wide of the target. The game was sealed in the seventieth minute however, Mercer, already booked lunged into a challenge on the edge of the box and was shown a second yellow card, provoking a strong reaction from the home faithful. Hall swung the resultant free kick goalwards, where it appeared to take a nick off a Kempston head to find the net. City’s Adam Capel lead the celebrations and subsequently claimed the goal via twitter, but the unlucky Josh Crawley looked to have gotten the decisive touch. A goal down and a man down, Rovers were forced to hang on as Sharman cut in and saw his shot deflect inches over the bar with Wyant stranded. The young keeper produced another fine save to deny Oyinsan’s stinging effort with fifteen minutes to go. Wyant again kept Kempston in the game, smothering a one on one situation with Towner. Sub Sam Johnson attempted a robust challenge late on, which not only saw him cautioned but also injured. Alex Collard almost grabbed an unlikely equaliser, latching on to a deep free kick, but saw it turned away at the near post for a corner. Hall exploited the space at the back as Rovers tried to press for a late leveller, but his breakaway effort slipped just wide of the post. Nathan Tshikuna bustled his way into the box in stoppage time but his shot lacked any real power. The referee showed his ninth card of the game late on to Capel for dissent at the award of a free kick.

Defeat drops Rovers one place to twelfth place in the table, while Cambridge continue to look strong. The next league action for Rovers is next weekend when they host another of the leagues high-flyers in Peterborough Sports. It will hopefully see the return of Rovers’ player of the year from last season Jake Newman.

Tuesday night sees Kempston travel to Welwyn Garden City in the league cup.