Southern League Central, Saturday October 12th
Another day and another road trip with fellow footie fans as four of us made the journey from our meeting point at the Brook Street Roundabout junction of the M25 north west to Oxfordshire and to a small town just outside Oxford in the shape of Kidlington and more specifically Yarnton Road.
This was a first visit for me to Kidlington in general and it is a pretty decent set up, the clubhouse is good, it has a nice seated stand and some cover just up from that, and also had a small covered terrace behind the goal where you enter the ground to one side of the goal, this was where the noisy home support stood to make all their nose, armed with a drum too, and to be fair they sang throughout the contest regardless of what was happening on the pitch, so kudos to them for the support they gave their side.
Their is also a nice outside area next to the clubhouse and also a nice small tea bar too selling lovely bacon rolls and a decent coffee too (they also did chocolate bars, crisps and cans of drink, oh and sausage rolls too) so more than adequate for an afternoon at football, all at decent prices too.
Now Kidlington are struggling this season somewhat, they sat second bottom and only off the bottom on goal difference after losing six of their seven league games thus far, and only picking up a solitary point all season, they were finding things tough you could say, there opponents today were having a much more solid campaign, sitting in fifth spot and the final play off place having picked up sixteen points in their nine games thus far, that's five wins, one draw and three defeats.
WGC had not won for two games though in the league, so wanted to get back to winning ways here, and they were expected too against a side who had lost their last three in the division after picking up their only point of the season against Hertford Town back at the end of August, and it didn't take too long for the visitors to get there noses in front either.
Full back Zuriel Otseh-Taiwo was given the freedom of the penalty area after being left totally unmarked at the back post he received the ball, and took a touch before rifling a powerful effort beyond hosts keeper Charlie Barnett after just five minutes of the contest, and you felt that maybe the hosts were in for a long afternoon.
The hosts to their credit did battle hard though thereafter and it looked as if they would get into half time just a goal behind, but, right on half time they conceded a second goal crucially and it was a very well worked free kick from the visitors too, Bailey Stevenson took the free kick by playing it into strike partner Bradley Wadkins, Wadkins then played it back into the path of Stevenson who drilled a lovely low effort beyond Barnett and into the bottom corner, WGC were now two goals to the good heading into the half time break and looking well set for victory.
And three minutes after the break the game looked over after Stevenson did well to win the ball on the left wing before he lofted an amazing effort over Barnett into the far corner for a truly brilliant goal and a wonderful piece of skill, I am sure he meant it but whether or not he did it didn't matter and now the visitors were cruising and you felt at this point it could get ugly for the hosts.
Things didn't improve for the home side just before the hour when they saw boss Craig McKay sent off from the dugout for something he must have said to the assistant on that side of the pitch, and then two minutes after that Stevenson was so close to grabbing his hat trick when thumping an effort against the bar, WGC were hunting for more goals and Kidlington were doing all they could to prevent further damage.
Credit to the hosts though who continued to fight for the cause and in the 72nd minute they won a penalty after brilliant play down the right from substitute Dineen Hellifield Meegan saw him drive into the box before he was fouled, and Powfil Raposo stepped up to dispatch the spot kick and give Kidlington small hope of maybe getting back into the contest.
That small hope became a real possibility though seven minutes later when they pulled another goal back as after a terrific driving run down the left from Charles Bacon, his ball in eventually found it's way to Raposo who fired a lovely effort right in the top bins, and all of sudden WGC were in danger of letting a three goal lead slip from nowhere.
A tense last 10-15 minutes ensued as Kidlington did all they could to get back on level terms, a thought that was totally unthinkable with twenty minutes to go, and the visitors were hanging on somewhat at times, they stood firm though and were always in danger of springing a counter attack on their opponents who had pushed up searching for that elusive leveller.
And deep into stoppage time, WGC did just that and countered on their opponents, with the attack ending with Stevenson sweeping home a decent finish from inside the box to complete his hat trick and seal the visitors win, but oh boy they made it a lot harder than they should have done after cruising earlier in the game, fair play to the hosts though who so nearly pulled it back.
It means the hosts remain second bottom with just one point, whereas WGC get back to winning ways and they remain fifth with nineteen points after a sixth league win of the campaign and open up a four point gap to sixth, a very decent game to watch, especially the second half, I certainly enjoyed my first visit to Yarnton Road.
Full time Kidlington 2 Welwyn Garden City 4
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