Arch Deacon

Kempston came into this fixture without having played a league game in a month after their recent cup exploits. Josh Crawley was restored to the starting line up after his amazing goal at Woking at the weekend.

Rovers seemed to be suffering from a case of ‘after the lord mayors show’ in the early stages, as Bayliss got an early shot off that was saved by Martin Conway, he was denied by a block from Seb Simpson later in the half as he was played in on the counter attack. Rovers had their first chance from a well worked corner, Ben Shepherd played the ball across, where a neat backheel from Shane Bush at the near post pushed the ball across to Alex Collard. The defender saw his shot blocked on the goal line. Moments later, another counter attack saw Bayliss away again in the right hand channel, his left foot stab shot slipped under Conway and into the net to break the deadlock. With less than ten minutes to half time, Kempston should have levelled matters, as Mason Spence threaded a cross ball, which found Crawley unmarked in the area, but the forward spooned over. The match then changed completely in the space of three minutes just before the break, as after a late challenge, several players became involved in a petty scuffle in the middle of the park. Aylesbury’s Strafford was shown a straight red card for his part in the affair and took an age to leave the field, arguing as he went. He would later re-appear in the stands with some colourful language directed at Kempston officials. When the fuss had died down and the game restarted, it became apparent that Aylesbury needed to withdraw the dangerous Bayliss through injury. In the space of three minutes, the hosts had been reduced to ten men and lost their best player on the night.

Rovers began the second half with a more pressing attitude. Mason Spence flicked wide from a corner less than a minute after the restart. Ben Shepherd then drew a fine save from Bennion in the Aylesbury goal with a curling effort from the edge of the box. From the resulting corner, Spence headed against the bar. The hosts were still a threat on the counter and Conway had to be alert to deny Tappin with a smart save midway though the half. Nathan Tshikuna then had three bites at the cherry, jinking in from the touchline and shooting with his left foot. The first shot was saved by the keeper and his two follow up efforts were blocked by defenders as Rovers wondered if it was to be one of those nights. With fifteen minutes to go, sub Luke Heneghan threw a cross into the box, where it was powerfully met at the far post by Shane Bush. The forward’s header had too much on it and flew past Bennion to level the scores. In to the last few moments of normal time, a Ben Shepherd cross was headed back across goal and met by the flying figure of Ty Deacon, off the bench against his former club, but the young forward couldn’t keep the ball down. In the last of the six additional minutes, for the earlier timewasting, Rovers snatched the winner. Seb Simpson put a cross into the box, which was met by a cluster of bodies at the far post. The ball ran loose in the middle of the six yard box, where Deacon was on hand, sliding in with a defender to nudge it into the net to settle the game.

The win lifts Rovers up the table to twelfth, although they still have a number of games in hand on those around them thanks to the various cup runs. Next up is a weekend trip to Dereham in the FA Trophy. The coach leave the club at half past ten.