Sam McEvoy
A disallowed goal and two yellow cards compounded Kingston’s misery in a 4-0 drubbing by University College London, their second defeat in a row.
Two goals each from Barney Chapman and Mike Cattermole moved UCL to the top of the table with Kingston rueing their missed chances.
Lovejoy not overjoyed
Kingston captain Luke Lovejoy had hoped for better after a promising start from the home team.
“We played well in the first half, but awfully in the second. We kept committing men forward, trying to get the goals we needed to get back in the game, but they just hit us on the counter.
“It’s always easy for them to play against nine men and unfortunately for us, that’s when they took advantage,” he said.
A great start
Kingston started brightly, keeping calm in possession with neat concise passing and creating plenty of chances in the first half.
It seemed that Kingston had got their reward on the 15-minute mark, as central defender Peter Bailie struck a fierce shot through a crowd of players, deflecting past the keeper.
The referee disallowed the goal as it had deflected off Kingston forward Chris Podd’s shoulder after hitting a UCL club just before.
Not long after, UCL forward Mike Cattermole opened the scoring with a relatively easy finish after a quick counter-attack from the visiting side.
UCL doubled their lead in the dying moments of the half with a smart finish from Barney Chapman to heap the pressure on the hosts.
The second half
The second half started just as the first half finished, with UCL adding another to their tally with what was the goal of the game.
A smart through ball pierced the Kingston defence on the left and was expertly crossed to Chapman who scored his second of the game.
Kingston’s first-half display eventually begun to fade as UCL piled on the pressure to secure all three points.
A poor finish
With the score at 3-0, two Kingston players, both Lovejoy and Bailie, were sent to the sin-bin for two separate harsh yellow card offenses leaving Kingston down to nine which resulted in UCL eventually adding their fourth and final goal.
After a number of missed chances by the visitors beforehand, Cattermole took his tally to two and finally put the game out of reach.
UCL coach Jack Beard praised his side’s effort and resilience to get the three points that he felt his team deserved.
“I think the first half was quite competitive, Kingston came out fast and applied a lot of pressure,” Beard said.
“We caught them on the counter-attack a couple of times in the first half and got our two first half goals by doing that.
“We then took control of the game in the second half and deservedly won.”