Eagles overcome K's at the Eyrie

Bedford's late, late goal in the first game brings fruit in the replay

The Eagles progressed through to the next round in the Buildbase FA Trophy, winning a thrilling replay against Bostik League Premier side Kingstonian on Tuesday evening. Goals from Dan Walker, Matt Harriott, and Jermaine Osei cancelled out the two from the visitors, and the winning goal was a peach of a shot.
The game started fast and furious, and early on, Dan Walker and Ollie Swain both went close for Bedford.
A quick free kick, taken by former National League player, Louie Theophanous, found Elliott Buchanan, in the Bedford area, and although the forward had plenty of time, Niall Cooper saved his shot.
That was just a stay of execution for the Eagles, as a minute later, Kingstonian took a 16th minute lead. It stemmed from a thwarted Bedford attack, and Rob Tolfrey, in the K’s goal, played a long ball down the length of the pitch. Buchanan raced onto the ball as it bounced into the area, and with no defender around him, lobbed the ball over Cooper for the first goal of the night.
In the original game on Saturday, the Eagles weren’t behind for long, and within two minutes had equalised when Brett Longden fed Walker, on the edge of the area. With enough time, the ex-Luton player had controlled and played the ball past Tolfrey to restore parity.
The last 20 minutes of the half belonged to the visitors, as they looked to take the lead again. Jay Gasson’s looping header posed no problem for Cooper, then Theophanous saw his shot blocked by a Bedford defender.
On 38 minutes, Cooper kept Bedford in the game with a save from the top drawer, as Aaron Lamont shrugged off the attentions of Harriott, he let fly from 20 yards with a curler that was destined for the top right, that is until Cooper flew across goal and tipped the ball away for a corner. just before the break, Theophanous got the better of Gavin Hoyte to shoot from an angle on the right, and this time Cooper saved with his legs.
Joel Gyasi had been quiet during the 1st half, but the second 45 minutes saw him burst into life, as five minutes after the restart he let rip with a 22 yard shot that Tolfrey had to palm round the post. From the resulting corner, the ball found its way to the far post, and Dean Dummett, looking for a fourth goal in four games, couldn’t find the target with an angled header, and the ball flew across goal and off. James Peters then had a 25 yard effort that dipped way too late and the ball flew over the bar.
Kingstonian started coming back, and a shot from Theophanous had the sting taken out of it with a deflection, but it was enough to allow Buchanan to chase Cooper for it, with the Bedford ‘keeper just getting to the ball first, and clearing.
The visitors took the lead for the second time, in the 62nd minute, when Theophanous’ cross was flicked on by Sean Francis into the path of Alfie Doughty, and from ten yards, the winger smashed the ball home.
Again, for the second time in the match, Bedford came back immediately, when Gyasi mazed his way into the area, put the ball further into the danger zone, and Harriott fired into the net.
In the 70th minute, and for the first time over the two games, Bedford took the lead. Walker coming in off the left, pushed the ball through the defence for Jermaine Osei, who, on the left side of the area, brought the ball inside and back a bit before he unleashed a perfect curler that flew into the top right hand corner of the net, and saw Tolfrey grasping at air.
With 20 minutes remaining, Bedford were aware that Kingstonian would come back, but the increased defensive line held the visitors to a couple of long shots. Muhammadu Faal came on as sub, and his first touch was to take the ball to 20 yards out before hitting a shot that beat Cooper, but came off the bar. Greg Cundle got to the rebound, but took a deflection off Jordan Jarrold. From the corner Buchanan headed wide of the mark. The referee put on five minutes extra, and Bedford held their higher opponents at bay to record a 3-2 win and progress to the 2nd qualifying round, where they travel to another Bostik League side, in the form of Chipstead FC on 10th November. Bedford are back in league action on Saturday 3rd November when the side visit Didcot Town in the league.