Nats the way to do it!

Kempston handed a debut to new goal keeper James Martin, recently signed from Bedworth United, as well as youth team graduate Cameron Hyde for this short trip down the A6 to Barton-le-Clay. The hosts lined up with two former Kempston favourites in Goodman and Spence.

The game was just three minutes old when Ben Shepherd shot over from the edge of the box in an early statement of intent. Seven minutes later Josh Crawley found Shane Bush with a good cross, the skipper took a neat touch and volleyed a shot just over. Just on the quarter hour, the game changed completely as a fairly innocuous looking tangle between new keeper Martin and Barton captain Paul Andrews resulted in a red card for the Barton man. The referee officially recorded the incident as a deliberate trip to prevent a counter attack after a corner. Both clubs reviewed the video post match and could see no such trip. Barton intend to appeal the dismissal. Shane Bush and Scott Joseph had good chances but couldn’t find the target before the deadlock was broken on the half hour. Cameron Hyde found some space wide on the left and whipped a ball into the box where it was turned in by former Kempston hero Goodman. In the aftermath of the goal, Shane Bush became entangled with Goodman, seeing the pair booked. The half became bad tempered as Barton felt aggrieved at the officials decisions. Five minutes before the break, a mix up in the Barton back line resulted in a poor clearance. Nathan Tshikuna seized upon the ball and flashed a wicked shot in at the near post to double the visitors lead at the break.

The second half took a while to warm up, understandable on such a cold day. The first action came just before the hour mark, when a Joseph cross was met by Bush, but the effort went over as the Kempston captain slipped at the vital minute. Barton’s first real chance of the game came shortly afterwards as Victor Osobu called Martin into action for the first time in the game, the keeper was out quickly to deny the forward. Bush and Joseph both saw shots scrambled clear in a moment of mayhem in the Barton box, the former’s effort needing to be cleared off the line. Despite the numerical disadvantage Barton looked to be regaining some momentum in the game, but that was knocked out of their sails in the sixty ninth minute as Nathan Tshikuna took up possession in the Barton half and jinked his way toward goal before unleashing a rocket howitzer from the edge of the box that thundered in off the crossbar for what must surely be Kempston’s goal of the season so far. Misery was compounded for Barton a minute later when Goodman committed a late tackle on Joseph to stop a counter attack, the referee issuing a second yellow card to the ex-Kempston man. His frustration was plain to see as he made his way off the field. In the late stages of the game, Cameron Hyde did brilliantly to roast his man for pace and put the ball in the box for Shane Bush, only for the captain to sky his effort. George Boland had the last effort on goal of the game, forcing a save from the edge of the box.

The win boosts Kempston’s points tally to 27 this season, more than half have been accumulated since Tony Joyce’s Revolution began. Unfortunately, the Southern League haven’t updated their league table at the time of writing, so there is no up to date league position for Rovers. The next action comes next weekend, when Sutton Coldfield Town make the trip to Kempston for a 3pm kick off.