We were well and truly beat here. The moment Krystian Pearce got himself sent off we were pretty much done. I had hoped he had been fouled initially in the build-up but it is now clear he wasn’t. Gowling said the player knew he had made a mistake having previously been warned about being a bit ‘cute’ by the gaffer. I am a big fan from what I have seen of Pearce, he looks exactly the type of centre-back we needed and my opinion hasn’t changed based on this. This killed the game though and I was genuinely worried how many this was going to be at half-time.
Kiddy are flying at the moment, the cup run has got them absolutely buzzing and let’s be honest they have every right. If they can get near 3900 at most home games (including 678 away fans) they will be tough to beat at Aggborough. Whether they will gain promotion is anyone’s guess but if they can keep this buzz around the place then the correlation with success would suggest so but things can change quickly and this is a funny old league. Personally, I hope they don’t and we play them again next season. I have to say they played good football after I’d calmed down, there was a real purpose to their play but this was obviously made easier for them. They were knocking it about nicely early on without really hurting us and we were in this. An eight-minute spell between 28-36 minutes made sure they were out of sight though. Sam Austin scored the opener from a half-cleared corner, it was some finish from the edge of the box and then Morgan-Smith added a quickfire brace. Vincent lost control of the ball on the edge of our box and within four touches it was in the back of Brandon Hall’s net for their second. There looked a suspicion of offside for the third but Morgan-Smith took it well by turning and firing home from twelve years. The inform Maz Kouhyar had a wonderful chance to equalise in between all the mayhem after great work from McLean down the right but couldn’t keep his shot down.
We were much more organised in the second half but there was probably an element of Kiddy taking their foot off the gas, they still had a few chances. Miles Storey came on at the interval and had our best chance which he pretty much made himself but fired wide. It is all quite disappointing after our form of late but sometimes you have to take these on the chin and move on.
I saw the article in the non-league paper that McLean, TOE and Maz were all being scouted and that doesn’t surprise me. We all know what TOE brings and that is why he is such a popular figure. Maz is massively popular and surely we need to get him on a contract so we get compensated should he leave. McLean can divide opinion but when the words rough diamond are mentioned this is the type of player whose limit is potentially very high and I don’t think many would argue, he is rapid.
I am making the trip to Leamington next and will be hoping to finally see a win on the road again. I seem to do ok at Edgar Street but I am pretty sure Curzon Ashton in 2018 was my last away win.
Al Davies.
The Gubbage and the Glory! 