Kings Langley were unable to build on their uplifting mid-week draw against Southern League Premier Division leaders Chippenham Town and put some more daylight between themselves and the drop zone as they were beaten 1-0 at Kettering Town.

After the low of losing to basement side Cinderford Town the previous weekend and the high of the Chippenham draw, yesterday’s game was pitched somewhere in the middle, as the two teams served up a dour contest that was short on creativity and entertainment.

Kings made only one change, bringing in Jack Pattison (fit after injury) for Ryan Plowright (unavailable), but the all-round team performance was several notches below the uplifting midweek display against the table toppers.

Kieran Turner put a shot over the bar in the third minute and Dom Langdon did likewise at the other end, before Jack Kelly chanced his arm with an effort from an acute angle.

The first real chance came on 20 minutes when James Hall’s wily lob appeared to have beaten Xavi Comas, but the keeper stretched to athletically tip the ball over the bar.

In a rare Kings attack, Richard Platt headed just over from a corner, but Michael King was receiving little service from the wings or midfield, resulting in another backs-to-the-wall performance, while the home team’s poor crossing all contributed to an opening half to forget.

However, both sides had hardly settled in to the second period when the pivotal moment of the match arrived.

A home attack saw the ball cleared to just outside the area where it was seized upon by Hall to deliver a first-time rocket into the net via the underside of the bar. It was a superb goal that gave Comas no chance and an incident that shone like a beacon in a sea of mediocrity.

It did inspire Kings to chase the game though, with a Turner forage down the middle and a shot just over, while the introduction of Lewis Toomey alongside King gave the visitors much more of an edge in attack.

It would probably be unfair to include the Kings defence with the inconsistent tag, as recent scoresheets show, and the excellent Gary Connolly made another wonderful goal-line clearance to deny Kettering the comfort of a buffer.

The problem seems to be that constant pressure is forcing industrial clearances or the long ball down the middle and the absence of the steadying influence of an experienced linkman such as the departed David Hutton is being sorely felt.

Toomey drew a great save from Paul White and the home fans began their countdown early, noting that ‘number 16 has made a difference’, while the home players paid the complement of taking the ball to the corner flag at every opportunity.

However, there were to be no more opportunities for either side and the match dragged itself across the finishing line, leaving Kings to reflect once again on the narrow margin between success and failure and that one moment in time had seen some of the chasing pack lessen the gap.

Kings Langley: Comas; Platt, Connolly, Johnson, Balogun; Coldicott-Stevens; Turner (Verney 80), Bush (Toomey 57), Pattison (Cox 80), Amoo; King. Subs not used: Waldren and Ward.