Grays Athletic 5-3 Kingstonian
A difficult evening for K's as more questions than answers are generated after defeat by Jim Cooper's Grays Athletic team.
When Jim Cooper was manager of Metropolitan Police, a visit to Imber Court normally made for an unhappy time for Kingstonian. Now that he is the boss at Grays Athletic, that magic spell has been successfully wafted over the Parkside as, on this fine Wednesday evening, the K's were handily beaten 3-5 by Cooper's new Blues.
K's started the game on the front foot and deserved their 12th minute lead given to them by Louie Theophanous' fifth pre-season goal, but the home side equalised in the 31st minute thanks to a fine finish by Manny Ogunrinde and the teams went in at half time in a competitive encounter level.
The second half proved to be owned by the home team as they earned themselves a 4-1 lead: Joao Carlos scored in the 48th minute and doubled his own personal tally on the hour mark. Then in the 72nd minute Macaulay Joynes curled a free kick past substitute goalkeeper Myles Roberts.
The game had a crazy finish with three goals in four minutes; Calum Davies got one back for the K's in the 83rd minute and Jerry Puemo another in the 86th minute as K's briefly threatened an unlikely comeback, but after the visitors' third goal, Grays raced down the other end and finished the scoring off with Manny Ogunrinde's second goal.
K's will be hoping for a better time on Saturday as they visit South Park for their final pre-season fixture of 2019, kick-off at 3.00pm.
Grays Athletic: Danny Sambridge, Jamie Hursitt, Macaulay Joynes, Jack McQueen, Stanley Muguo, Steve King, Manny Ogunrinde, Frankie Hession-Harris, Callum Taylor, Lewis Dark, Joao Carlos.
Subs: Ashley Miller (for Jack McQueen, 79m), Connor Pearce, Rob Bartley (for Stanley Muguo, 84m), Nathan Fox (for Jamie Hursitt, 82m), George Doyle (for Frankie Hession-Harris, 80m), Tony Stokes (for Callum Taylor, 70m), Denzel Adebiyi (for Joao Carlos, 64m).
Kingstonian: Rob Tolfrey, Sean Clohessy, Ben Harrison, Simon Cooper, Ollie Cook, Tom Kavanagh, Dan Bennett, Kenny Beaney, Louie Theophanous, Fabio Saraiva, Reece Hall.
Subs: Dan Thompson (for Dan Bennett, 59m), Myles Roberts (for Rob Tolfrey, 50m), Calum Davies (for Louie Theophanous, 73m), Jerry Puemo (for Tutu Henriques, 62m), Gus Sow (for Kenny Beaney, 59m), Lartey Sarpong (for Reece Hall, 73m), Tutu Henriques (for Ollie Cook, 50m).
Goal scorers: Louie Theophanous (12m, 0-1), Manny Ogunrinde (31m, 1-1), Joao Carlos (48m, 2-1), Joao Carlos (60m, 3-1), Macaulay Joynes (72m, 4-1), Calum Davies (83m, 4-2), Jerry Puemo (86m, 4-3), Manny Ogunrinde (87m, 5-3).
