Jonah Howgego celebrates his goal.
Written by James Smith
Photos by James Smith
Dunstable Town may feel two lapses in concentration cost them a third win in a row as a battling Shefford Town & Campton side gained a point against their in-form opponents.
The visitors’ schedule of late with only playing two games in a month prior, may have enabled them to possibly gain a slight advantage having not played as much, while Town looked slightly jaded in the second half after quite a busy period of games.
Steve O’Reilly shuffled the pack to give opportunities to players who had performed well when coming off the bench in recent games.
Jonah Howgego and Louie Carr both earned starts while Liam Hayden and Luka Lodder started on the bench as Finbar King came in after scoring in his last two games as a substitute.
Joe Hankins, Kodi Briggs, Alex Butt and Melvin Onu who all started on Tuesday against London Lions also took a place on the bench.
Town played some excellent football in the first half and set out on the attack from the off.
In the first ten minutes James Sales’ cross hit the top of the crossbar, Harrison Mead shot just over and Jack James headed agonisingly wide.
Their dominance paid off on 12 minutes when man of the match Carr intercepted the ball in the middle of the park and played in Mead who finished confidently past Arun Khan in the visitors goal.
Harrison Mead opens the scoring.
Three minutes later Hankins crossed for King at the far post but it was just out of reach to get an effort on goal. JJ Kenna then flicked a header towards the bottom corner but Khan just got down to save.
With 29 minutes on the clock and while the Blues were continuing to enjoy a lot of the ball Howgego tried to curl a shot into the net but Khan gathered.
Against the run of play, a minute later, Shefford & Campton equalised when they countered from the edge of Dunstable’s box, through the middle of the pitch and out to the right wing where a cross came into former Town player Ayo Akinbobola who finished at the second attempt after Alex Desmond saved his initial effort.
The Blues looked shell-shocked. After a great, confident start they were pegged back and it took a few minutes for them to recover.
With 36 minutes gone Alfie Osborne headed a cross back towards King but again it just evaded the Town forward then Akinbobola headed inches wide at the other end.
King was unlucky not to get on the end of the ball when Howgego’s low driven corner just missed the luckless striker.
Shefford shot wide before the Blues went back in front when Howgego burst into the box and hit a fine strike low down past Khan to restore the lead on 44 minutes.
Howgego restores the lead.
King headed a corner wide just before the break as Dunstable deservedly went in to half time with the lead.
Much like the away game back in September Town started the second half sloppily as the visitors came out of the blocks much the better.
Akinbobola shot narrowly wide ten minutes into the half but they equalised seconds later when a mix up in the Dunstable defence saw James and Desmond collide leaving the easiest of goals for Plamedi Bomolo to fire into an empty net for his 7th goal in eight games.
Town responded well though and on the hour mark Howgego hit the post as Khan went down very slowly to try and save the shot. It became apparent that Khan was struggling with a hamstring injury but had to carry on as their was no substitute keeper on the bench.
O’Reilly introduced Hayden, Lodder and Briggs in the 64th minute for King, Howgego and Hankins to freshen things up.
A moment of controversy soon followed as Mead entered the Shefford box and was fouled a yard into it but frustratingly the referee gave a free kick right on the edge of the area. Lodder hit the restart hard and low but the defensive wall stood firm.
Ghaalib Yusuf shot into the side netting for Shefford with 71 minutes gone before Hayden strike a fine curling effort just wide for Town.
Richard Blankson then shot narrowly wide six minutes later for the visitors as the game became stretched.
It produced little more goalmouth action but a heated melee broke out in injury time which saw Osborne and an opponent booked for their troubles.
Shefford’s Tom Perry maybe considered fortunate only to receive a yellow card for a late, reckless tackle on Mead as he tried to launch one last attack.
Town will feel frustrated after a great first half, that they were unable to carry it on in the second but to Shefford’s credit they made it very difficult and took advantage of some weary limbs and errors from their opponents.
Team: Desmond; Kenna; Sales; James; Osborne; Carr; Hankins; Goulding; King; Mead; Howgego.
Subs: Lodder; Hayden; Butt; Briggs; Onu.
Attendance: 307.
Town Man of the Match: Louie Carr.
Alfie Osborne heads towards goal in the first half.
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