Report by Jools Thomas

In truth, there wasn’t a great deal wrong with FC’s performance and whilst there were plenty of half chances, there were only a handful of real gilt edged breaks. Kings made the most of their opportunities and thereby made Aylesbury pay by taking maximum points.

Brian Haule, Davis Haule and Aston Goss were all missing for the trip and this meant Rob Tomlin filled in at full back, Jonny Montgomery returned in midfield and Terry Dixon started up front. FC also gave a debut to Eddie Smith, a proven goal scorer at this level, and he hit a rising shot after just a couple of minutes. On five minutes, a free kick on the right was hit disappointingly wide by Daniel Murphy, a man who went on to have a fine game. Danny Gordon was another defender on form and his block from David Hutton prevented a strike on target. Murphy fashioned a further long range effort after being played in by Lynton Goss and he saw this flash wide of the post. Almost immediately Hutton hit a great shot from the left which FC’s James Weatherill managed to get a hand to.

Gary Connelly was in action on the half hour with a shot from distance which flew into the arms of Weatherill. Hutton had been deep in the action all of the game and the KL target man could have been a little more composed when he hit a ball over the bar from a clever reverse pass a moment or two later. Daniel Murphy had a half chance and then Mitchell Weiss hit the ball wide when through on goal. The end of the first half saw a flurry of activity as the home team pressed forward with Weatherill making a fairly routine save from Emmanuel Folarin.

FC’s best chance of the game came on 40 minutes. Terry Dixon floated in a cross for Eddie Smith and in a move reminiscent of David Platt v Belgium, the debutant crashed a shot just wide of the mark.

Gareth Price enjoyed a productive afternoon on the flanks. Early in the second half, he embarked upon a commanding run before hitting a shot that home keeper Xavi Comas managed to hold on to. Danny Gordon again made a vital block, this time from Steve Ward on 50 minutes and three minutes later Callum Adebiyi glanced a header wide when an on target effort would surely have tested Weatherill.

After good work on the left, Kieron Schmidt received the ball but his effort went wide when he had a clear sight of goal. FC were to rue this missed opportunity as the home side took the lead a few moments later on 70 minutes. The ball was played into the box and Gary Connelly hit the ball on the volley past Weatherill and into the bottom right hand corner much to the delight of his team mates.

Kings Langley’s second goal wasn’t long in coming as they asserted their grip on the game. This time the work was on the right. Stuart Deaton took a couple of touches but then an unfortunate slip by Daniel Gordon allowed the Kings’ man a run on goal before he unleashed a powerful shot into the top corner.

Gareth Price was still looking for an opening and his turn and shot on 83 minutes tested home keeper Comas and this was to be the last real chance of an entertaining but ultimately pointless game for the men in red.