Pre-season, part deux.

AFC Kempston Rovers vs Bedford Town

You may remember that last week I stated that pre-season games were always rubbish. I take it back. This game at the Hillgrounds was a cracker. The Hillgrounds is a tidy little ground with a covered stand running the length of the pitch on one side and the rest of the ground being surrounded by a concrete path. The stand is divided between seating and terracing but both are fully covered. At the end of the stand is the first floor sports bar. The bar has a lovely area of decking from which the game can be viewed, although the roof of the stand does restrict the view of the far end of the pitch. There was a good selection of beer for a club of this size and ale was available. The staff were very friendly and overall it was a pleasant place for the hundred or so fans and me to watch football.

The main stand at the Hillgrounds with the decking area on the right.

A combination of good attacking play and some terrible defending made for a really open and exciting game.  Kempston started the better team but Bedford soon picked up.  Amazingly the referee gave a Town a penalty for handball on 20 minutes.  I say amazingly because he'd contrived to not see the first five or six handballs of the game.  Bedford duly mucked the chance up, pinging the ball against the crossbar and out.  The pressure was mounting, Kempston were being pushed back with Town hitting the bar twice more before half-time.  Rovers were struggling to get men forward and ended the half playing on the counter-attack.

The penalty

The two linesmen taking on supplies at half-time: little and large.

Bedford put out a completely different side after the break and it showed with Kempston soon going ahead.  The Rovers centre-forward split the defence to go clear through on goal and coolly headed past the on-rushing keeper.  Five minutes later and it should have been two as the Bedford keeper threw the ball against a Rovers striker who forced it home.  I'm still not entirely sure why this goal was ruled out by the linesman, who was surprisingly athletic for someone of his proportions.  It's not often you see someone of that size 'running' the line, let alone doing it well.  More end to end play resulted in a deserved equalizer as a driven cross was headed in at the near post on sixty minutes.  The game stayed open until the end and both sides had ample opportunity to win it but neither could convert a chance leaving the full-time score at 1-1.

Bedford defend the short corner.

Next time: A Belfast special as FC United of Manchester pay a visit to Cliftonville.