London Colney 1-2 Dunstable Town 7th December 2019 Written by Patrick MacKay and pictures by Robert Blackman. Dunstable Town ended their poor run of form on Saturday afternoon at London Colney where a frantic ending to the game saw all three goals come in the final nine minutes. Town started the game brightly, with plenty of possession, but didn't threaten the home side's goal until Chris Stapleton chested a cross into the air and with his back to goal, saw his ambitious overhead kick hit the crossbar, and then also saw the linesman's flag raised in the air. London Colney saw their first chance squandered a short time thereafter. A deep ball was aimed towards their striker at the back post, but presumably he didn't expect it to reach him, and the header ended up harmlessly wide. Dunstable's dominance continued, and midway through the first half a brace of opportunities came along in quick succession, most notably when a Dan Blackman free kick was headed across goal by Seb Smith, but with no white shirt able to knock the ball in, the chance was wasted. Despite controlling much of the play, Dunstable were close to going in at half time a goal behind, but a good block from Adam Sawyer in stoppage time ensured parity remained. The first goal threat of the second half came in the fifty-second minute when a London Colney corner looked to be headed directly in until Dan Gould got a strong fist to the ball. As the game progressed, both sides began to attack in the hope of gaining the much-needed three points. With the game becoming slightly stretched, neither team showed the cutting edge to gain the lead, with Dunstable largely having Dan Murphy to thank, with the defender looking solid in the first game of a second spell with the Blues. Another man making his first appearance was George Mulonda, who replaced Davide Pobbe with just over twenty minutes left to play, and not long afterwards delivered a great cross which Khyreece Smith-Reid headed towards the top corner, only to see it tipped round the post by the goalkeeper. With ten minutes to play, Dan Gould was forced into action again when a London Colney attacker was through on goal coming from the left, but was thwarted by the goalkeeper's legs. But with four minutes left of the ninety, the beleaguered home side took the lead when their striker skilfully turned Smith before pushing the ball wide to go round Gould before firing into the goal. Going into injury time it looked as though Dunstable were headed for a morale-sapping defeat, until a ninety-second minute Cam Brooks free kick from the right was turned across goal by Smith-Reid for Harry Shepherd to equalise from close range. Two minutes later, with the Blues fans still buzzing from the equaliser, Dunstable were awarded a free kick on the left, just outside the penalty area. The London Colney keeper was equal to the shot, but the ball was only parried as far as Dan Murphy, who capped an already impressive performance by inserting the winning goal. The Blues will look to build on this dramatic victory on Tuesday night when they visit Harpenden Town, for a 19:45 kick-off.
