Two Away Wins Keep K's Midtable as Trophy Challenge Awaits
- Taimour Lay
- Nov 6, 2016
- 2 min read
Hands up if you hate 3G. K's usually do.
From Maidstone to Whyteleafe to Harlow Town, the players have tended to struggle with the hard surface, dodgy bounce and home-side habituation (aka unfair advantage). Hendon's new pitch, laid out at their new stadium in Jubilee Park, has a marked slope and glistens
disconcertingly under the floodlights. K's away following of 30 last Tuesday night therefore expected little.
Instead, out of nowhere came a first-half goal glut. First, Joe Turner planted a bullet-header at the backpost. Then Aaron "Norman" Lamont, playing as a second striker, saw the keeper off his line and sent a swerving, dipping curler over his head and into the goal.
On the half-hour, it was 3-0 when former Hendon captain Lee O'Leary, brilliantly anchoring the K's midfield since his return from Canvey Island last week, scored from close-range.
Community-owned Hendon are struggling badly in the league and are perhaps both an example and a warning to other Step 3 clubs charting a course between the Scylla of owner subsidies and the Charybdis of "sustainable fan funding”. K's support, with a vote on the club's legal structure imminent, chose this as an opportune time to chant "3-0 to the Directors' Loans!"
Then it was four after the break when Youssef Bamba prodded in a robound. As thoughts turned to the long walk back to Hendon railway station, the home side got a consolation through Niko Muir but the three points had long been safe.
K's manager Tommy Williams pondered the upturn in fortunes. "We scored some terrific goals, " he said. "We took our performance from Sunday's second half into tonight. Lee O'Leary put in a fine performance. I had a team of warriors out there".
As for the pitch, Williams played the diplomat but there's clearly something odd about the Hendon surface which, if anything, is undermining Gary McCann's attempts to play passing football. "It doesn't give you a true bounce," added Williams. "It has a slope and in all honesty it's not the best. We train on grass but the lads adapted well."
K's then followed up the midweek win with a 1-0 success at Tonbridge Angels on Saturday, Alan Inns heading in the only goal.
K's next host the Kent side on 12 November in the FA Trophy Second Round Qualifying. The game is free for local students. (poster here). https://twitter.com/banquetrecords/status/794540647575392256