KINGS AFC 8 - 0 EXEL UNITED

Saturday 24th November 2007

Kings: Barber, Milner, Fordham, Dyer, Cain, Tomlin, M.Whelan (J.Clements), Minty, Haywood, Morgan, N.Clements (Sacbuker)

Half time score: 6-0

Kings AFC Scorers: N.Clements (5, Five!... Again!), J.Clements, Morgan, Minty

Booking: J.Clements (Yellow)

MAN OF THE MATCH NATHAN CLEMENTS

After 3 clean sheets in a row and goals coming from every angle, confidence was on a high going into the game.
 
With Wilson & Loosemore unavailable, Manager Minty reshuffled the back four with Milner coming in at right back and Fordham at left back. With Sacbuker having less than 3 hours sleep, he was 'rested' with Minty coming in at Centre Mid.
 
The game started with Exel taking the initiative and keeping the ball in the Kings half. However this didn’t last long and with Tomlin bringing the ball down the left wing, passed to Morgan who back heeled it back to Tomlin. Another one two followed between the same players, when Marcus unleashed a cross that the keeper managed to palm away, but Nath Clements pounced and finished slickly from close range. 1 - 0
 
Kings began to dominate possession and Kewell playing on the right wing made several foraging runs setting up Morgan, N. Clements and Marcus for chances. It took nearly 4 minutes to get the next goal, Kewell went on a rampaging run on the wing and sent a through ball for N. Clements to round the keeper skilfully and finish for his second of the game. 2 - 0
 
Kings had won a number of corners at this early stage and despite some dubious defending tactics by Exel, the next goal came with Danny Cain ending up on the edge of the 18 yard box and drilled a ball across the goal for Morgan to finish. 3 - 0
 
The onslaught continued with Marcus sending a pin point cross that was blatantly handled by an Exel defender, with no penalty given! Despite Clements remonstrating with the linesman, who said it was a pen... the ref over ruled. Kings players couldn’t believe some of the refereeing decisions made already in the match and this was the cherry on the cake!
 
However this didn’t stop Kings pushing on, the dangerous Danny Cain came up for a second corner and met the ball from Milner perfectly. With the effort on target the quick thinking Minty headed the effort over the last defender from close range to score a quality goal. 4 - 0
 
With Fordham & Milner snuffing out any attacks down the flanks, Jeff began to make use of his long throws with Morgan controlling one throw in on the 6 yard box, but was unable to get an effort on target.
 
Danny Cain brought the ball out of defence and sent a ball to Morgan’s feet; he dropped his shoulder and went through two Exel defenders, before sending the ball to Tomlin. He quickly latched onto the ball and was unlucky not to score. From the resulting corner, the ball ended up at Morgan’s feet who's cross-cum-shot went to Nathan who finished from close range. 5 - 0.

Minty and Haywood dominated the midfield and started several attacks for Kings. N. Clements received the ball with good work from Kewell and Haywood. He went on a run going past two defenders and slotted the ball home with minimum effort. 6 - 0
 
HALF TIME

The second began with Kings dominating, however it wasn’t the free flowing football form the first half. With the victory pretty much guaranteed, the glory option was beginning to come into the game.
 
N Clements latched onto through ball by Milner and finished early on to make it 5 for him and 7 for Kings! 7 - 0
 
With the game already won, Minty substituted the impressive Kewell for Josh 'psycho' Clements. Within seconds of coming on, Josh was blatantly hacked down, but another extremely poor referring decision saw this go unpunished. With Exel starting a rare attack, Josh’s, adrenaline pumping, then flattened the Exel player. J Clements fought hard on the right wing and was eventually booked for a 50 - 50.
 
With Haywood and Minty calming the younger Clements down, Nath went on a power run beating the Exel left back for pace with over 20 yards to make up. With a tight hamstring Nath then managed to round two players and bare down on goal when he unselfishly squared to psycho to drive the ball home bottom corner. 8 - 0
 
Nathan was then substituted for Sacbuker, Barber came out to right wing with Minty going left wing and Tomlin going in goal.
 
Kings were becoming sloppy as the half drew on with some selfish play by a number of players. However Kings still managed to carve out some good efforts with Haywood receiving the ball from Fordham and running into the penalty area skilfully passing the Exel defenders. With only the keeper to beat he tried to unselfishly square to Morgan but just missed the ball.
 
Josh was still was fired up and wanted to make the most of his chance. He had some long range efforts on goal, one narrowly going over the bar and a few goal bound efforts being blocked. Sacbuker had a good drive from about 25 yards which unfortunately went straight at the keeper.
 
With Kings piling on the pressure to add to their goal tally, Milner got involved after good work by Josh and Sacbuker, the ball ended up about 20 yards out and Milner unleashed a left footed drive that dipped and hit the top of the cross bar. So unfortunate not to score his first of the season.
 
The back four held solid and Danny Cain swapped with Haywood to have a run in midfield. Good work from Fordham and Sacbuker sent the young defender through, but unfortunately his first touch sent the ball too far ahead and was intercepted by the Exel defender.
 
With the impressive Minty already on the score sheet he picked the ball up on the edge of the 18 yard box and unleashed a powerful drive that cannoned off the cross bar with no Kings player able to finish off.
 
Another good performance from Kings AFC.
 
FINAL SCORE. 8 - 0

By Lee Morgan