Silver Jubilee Park Sunday, August 15th, 2010   FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Attendance: 36         Kentish Town 1-0 Stansted
2010 /11

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Kentish Town 1 James Lindsay (1) Stansted 0 Kentish Town are through to the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup after beating reigning Essex Senior League Champions Stansted FC 1-0 on a glorious Sunday afternoon. The Townies put in an excellent performance, and now go on to face Bethnal Green United in the next round. The Townies made three changes from their opening day selection, with Kesi Dryden, Dale Archer and Chris Phillips all coming in for Kay, Kanaris and Kavanagh. Despite playing up the slope in the first half, the Townies took control of proceedings and started to look a very dangerous attacking side. Defensively Phillips and Gbio were in control and the only first half worries were from set pieces or counter attacks. Anything of note hit at the Kentish Town goal was dealt with excellently by McCarthy. The Townies made and then wasted a number of chances. Clark made a great run to get on the end of a through ball at the end of a flowing move, only to see his shot saved by the Stansted keeper. James Lindsay saw a couple of shots well saved as well. Ruaridh Kay, who entered the action before half-time, set Scott through, however the striker cut back inside past the keeper, before he and Kay got in each other’s way, to Stansted’s relief. Half time came and Kentish Town had nothing to show for an exceptional half of football, which involved good free-flowing football mixed with some decisive attacking play and a well organised defensive display. The second half performance was not as good as the first, with the heat no doubt taking its toll the game became a little more open and the Townie dominance wasn’t so strong. However, Kentish Town still looked the more likely winners and played with an air of confidence that the tie was very much in their hands. Injury forced off Gbio, which was a big blow as the centerback had been outstanding. However this allowed young forward John Lundeya to make his debut as a team reshuffle occurred that pushed Clark into midfield and Simms into defence. In the 66th minute Lundeya made the desired impact, laying a pass on the turn for the speedy James Lindsay to race onto. LINDSAY was always going to get to the ball first, and when he did he entered the area and slotted past the keeper to give the Townies the lead. Stansted soon sent on a big forward and went 4-3-3 to try and rescue the game. This caused some problems for the Townies, as you would expect when defending a slender advantage in the later stages of an FA Cup tie. However, generally the back four stood up very well. The one key time Stansted did get in behind the Townie defence McCarthy was on hand to make an outstanding save with his legs to preserve the lead. Another injury forced McCarthy off and Linehan came on to replace him. The referee somehow found 7 minutes of injury time, but the Townies defending resolutely and finally picked up the victory. Hudson said “This was an outstanding and a complete performance. Last week I said this is the best squad I have had at Kentish, well this was the best team performance since I have been here as well. The first half we were dominant and the tie should have been out of sight. But we kept going and got our rewards in the second half. Defensively we were very strong and we need to produce those high standards on a regular basis. A real positive is that I was able to make substitutions to go and affect the game. The quality on the bench was excellent and Ruaridh Kay came on and was exceptional. John Lundeya had a big part in the goal and he will be a real handful for opponents this year. Further to that, had Damien (McCarthy) not be forced off I would have had the choice of a few other outfield players who would have also strengthened us for the closing stages. We have a few injuries from this game but we can’t wait to get cracking again in the league and our focus is now on Tuesday night.”