Yet another “glorious” defeat for Ashford as we did everything but score in the second period, even missing a penalty, awarded for the umpteenth foul on Jermaine McGlashan.  We all knew that the offender would get away scot free of course, it being quite clear throughout that referee Power did not intend to pay any attention to the notion of persistent infringement, let alone preventing a goal scoring opportunity, but more worrying was yet another soft penalty miss, this time by Awuah Jones whose effort was straight at the home keeper who performed heroics throughout the second half to keep his team in the match.  Every penalty awarded against us this season has been blasted into the net whilst we continue to squander these golden opportunities.

Skipper Paul Johnson was still unwell whilst Paul Burgess was missing due to a knock picked up on Saturday.  Craig Ross came in between the posts whilst Jones Awuah was preferred up front to Brian Haule, a reversal of Saturday’s situation.

Both teams were clearly up for it and play was relatively even throughout the first half, Ashford’s best two opportunities being provided by McGlashan but nobody was able to take advantage.  The home side scored the vital goal though in first half stoppage time, a dangerous cross causing consternation in the otherwise solid visiting defence and Joe McNerney ended up putting the ball through his own goal, his second in three days.

Kingstonian goalkeeper Tolfrey was quite rightly awarded “man of the match” honours, with Ashford often throwing caution to the winds as they became ever more desperate to score for much of the second period.  This led to plenty of space for the speedy home forwards at times especially near the end but skipper Russell Canderton was on top form at the back for Ashford whilst Ross did his bit to keep the scoreline to just the one.

All in all though, a very frustrating evening for Ashford.