Royals Grab All 3 Points

Kyle Baker grabbed the winning goal in a 7 Goal thriller at Walmer Road, against 8th placed Hadleigh United.

The excitement at Walmer Road began after only three minutes when Scott Woodcock raced away before cutting in from the right to slam a powerful shot past Dan Heath for the first goal. After 12 minutes a Kirkley corner on the right came out to Ross Catchpole whose ball into the area was headed home by Ross King for a 2 -0 lead to Kirkley.

The thrills continued when after 23 minutes Marcus Josiah did some great work down the Hadleigh right before the ball rebounded from home keeper Ross Hills for Ollie Canfer to head in a goal for Hadleigh. At the other end Dan Heath punched behind following a free kick before the Hadleigh keeper gathered a wind assisted free kick from Scott Woodcock.

After 42 minutes Chris McLaughlin was adjudged to have fouled Kyle Baker in the penalty area and Baker sent Dan Heath the wrong way to make it 3-1 in favour of Kirkley. Hadleigh immediately pushed forward with Kris Rose missing narrowly with a powerful effort from 35 yards just before the half time whistle. Lee McGlone was on for Kris Rose at the start of the second half with Hadleigh having the stiff breeze at their backs as they faced a difficult task to get themselves into the game. Two minutes into the second half McGlone made his presence felt as the ball rebounded from the bar and Ollie Canfer netted to reduce the deficit. One minute later Canfer fired over the top and it was exciting stuff for the crowd, especially for the travelling faithful as they anticipated getting something from the game.

Canfer then headed wide before Matt Downing replaced Marcus Josiah.
After 65 minutes a massive wind assisted clearance by Dan Heath caused panic in the Kirkley defence as they failed to deal with the situation and Lee McGlone fired against the bar. The ball came out where the alert McGlone promptly fired into the net to equalise. Darcy De’ath fired over the top for Hadleigh before Paul Donnelly replaced Mark Gaisford. The Scott Chaplin fired against the bar as Hadleigh looked certain of taking the lead. But play moved immediately to the other end where Kyle Baker was given far too much space on Kirkley’s left and he cut in smartly before slamming his shot past Dan Heath for the winning goal. With ten minutes left Kirkley maintained the lead and Heath made a smart save just before the end.

Kirkley & Pakefield FC Team

R Hills
R Catchpole
L Flower
C Roberts
S Manning
S Woodcock (1)
M Kirkby
K Baldwin
K Baker (2)
R King (1)
C Bedingfield

M Brown
N Russell
G Mansbridge
A Bedingham
A Meeken