K's Tumble Out Of The Trophy
- Taimour Lay
- Nov 27, 2016
- 2 min read
To the list of ignominious cup defeats can be added the words “North Leigh”, the latest in a line which will forever be defined by a shocking reverse at Brockenhurst in the FA Cup in 2001 - and has continued via Barkingside to VCD Athletic, among others.
In short, K’s aren’t very good in critical knockout games, whether it’s home ties with Step 3 rivals or, as here, away banana skins at Step 4 minnows.
Although North Leigh, for all their pretence at plucky fairytale giantkillers (village of 1800 dead souls, no railway station, few/no fans), are in fact packed with ex-league bruisers and boast a healthy budget subsidised by the local Grand Tour gentry. In this context, perennially pessimistic K’s fans were predicting a defeat from the off. We, self-pitying and soon-to-be-homeless, were surely the underdogs.
Still, around 100 away fans made the journey to deepest Oxfordshire, the audacity of hope in dark times, including one mysterious traveller in a red, head-to-toe, all-in-one Spandex suit who roused those behind the goal by climbing onto a barrier and thrusting his hips in the direction of the North Leigh club photographer.
The only goal in a narrow 1-0 defeat duly came on the hour when Aaron Woodley turned a static K’s defence and beat Rob Tolfrey’s rightward dive. It was the home team’s first attack. They needed no more.
K’s best chance fell to Pelayo Pico Gomez, the striker’s curling shot tipped wide after he found himself one-on-one. Numerous flashing byline opportunities came and went before substitute Tom Derry airkicked an open goal in stoppage time.
In truth, we badly missed Ryan Moss, the Ryman Prem’s top-scorer out for the day so that he could attend to the small matter of his wedding. While K’s are not a one-man team, they are certainly are a one-Moss team and there’s no one who can lead the line in quite the same way. If only he could have chosen to play the field a while longer.
Manager Tommy Williams rued a damaging loss. “We’ve bombarded them for 90 minutes really, balls going across the box, we’ve had enough chances to win two games but if you don’t score, you don’t win,” he reflected.
“We had a good turnout of support today and I’m devastated. Lady luck wasn’t with us but we shouldn’t be losing, we should at least have taken them back to Kingsmeadow for a replay."
“The FA competitions are rewarding financially. We are a club cutting our cloth accordingly. It would have been a big reward to get through. We’re trying to juggle the budget and going out today doesn’t make it any easier.”
K’s travel to Bognor Regis Town in the league on Tuesday night.