AFC Dunstable 1 Stotfold 0

AFC Dunstable 1-0 Stotfold

21st December 2024

A real battle on a mud bath of a pitch (due to a half hour downpour which thankfully stopped 10

minutes before kick off) and windy conditions saw AFC just about come away with the three points.

Lots of huff and puff but difficult to get the ball down and play.

Very little to report in the first half of the game – largely thanks to the state of the pitch and the

players getting to grips with the conditions, but AFC did have the ball in the net with 13 gone –

Tommy running through to finish but it was quite rightly flagged offside.

With 16 gone, we took the lead with an assist from the committee members! Stotfold had a free kick

right out near the touchline which the keeper was going to take but we got in his head and

convinced him it was not a good idea – he then called over the centre half who also received some

good natured advice and he kicked the ball straight in to touch. From the resulting throw in, the ball

made it’s way to Keon who played the ball through to Sean who produced a smart finish to put us 1-

0 up.

Sean did have another effort 6 minutes later but he shot just wide. 1-0 to the home side at half time.

The second half started with the visitors on the front foot and it was only a superb piece of keeping

following a bit of a defensive mix up when he stole the ball off their strikers toe as he bore down in

goal that prevented an equaliser.

As in the previous game, AFC made a number of early substitutions which once again proved to be a

good decision by the management as they freshened things up. Russell had one good opportunity

within 5 minutes of coming on when he got a shot off following a free kick but it unfortunately went

straight at the keeper.

Stotfold really came back in to the game for the last 20 minutes and put AFC under some real

pressure. They struck the post with a shot and with 15 minutes left they really should have scored

when, following a goalmouth scramble, the ball was headed at the goal but it was cleared off the

line and away to safety. Another header flashed past the post just after that – AFC were up against it

but a mixture of good defending, poor finishing and good fortune meant it was our day today. The

final action of note was an excellent tackle from Stan following a poor kick by Matt straight to a

Stotfold player.

Joint POTM as voted by the committee were Sean Duodu and Shawn Joseph

Team line up (subs in brackets); Matt Bonsu, Albert Wood, Kwadwo Bugyei-Kyei, Keon Lewis-

Burgess (George Joyce 61), Ben Lynch (Stan Georgiou 57), Shawn Joseph, Tommy Blennerhasset

(Russell Berko 53), Tali Jallow (Harry Riley 53), Sean Duodu, Ollie Spicer (Kyle Lynch 79), Kyle Brooks.