After last weeks great performance against Sandy Reserves, The Oak went into this local derby knowing that 3 points should secure there place in Division 1 next season.

Chris Birdsall had another headache on Friday night, when he was forced to change the team that won last week. Danny Murphy t make it 4 games in a row for reasons unknown, so Andy Palombella had to drop into the back 3, with the Gaffer himself starting in centre midfield. Top scorer Lorenzo Jordan was also missing this week, so the returning Michael Cox come straight into the starting XI.

Games between the Royal Oak and Kempston are always a physical affair, and this game was no different. The first tackle of the game by Birdsall nearly ended in a ruck, but that was because Josh is a knob! Tackles were flying in all over the place, with not a lot of football being played in the first 10 to 15 minutes. Having Michael Cox up front gave the team a different dimension, andafter the game settled down this was used to great effect with The Oak trying to build the play between the Midfield and the strikers.

After 20 minutes, A mis-timed tackle on Michael Cox gifted The Oak a free kick on the top right hand corner of the 18 yard box. Paul Stevens stood over the ball, but a tactical decision by Dave Minney saw Michael Cooney swap with Stevens to take the kick. Cooney looked for Cox, Minney and Liam Boland at the back post. . . only to see his over-hit effort sail straight into Kempstons top corner. Cooney celebrated like he meant to do it and in turn Dave Minney claimed the assist for his tactical decision.

The middle of the first have then became a bit scrappy. With the weather changing every 5 minutes, it was hard to play any flowing football. First there was 5 minutes of hail, then snow, then rain, then blinding sun! All in the space of 15 minutes. Claudio Jordan will claim that the hail was the reason that he took a foul throw, even though he cant take a throw-in wether its windy, raining, or sunny!

The only other chance of the half fell to Lloyd Turner, when he chased a through ball from Cooney and turned inside a Kempston defender to put himself one-on-one with the keeper. The keeper rushed out and Turner fluffed his effort straight across the face of the goal.

Then, the moment of the first half, when White hit a goal kick towards the half way line and in Claudio Jordans attempt to flick it on, he got it all wrong and headed It straight back to White over the top of The Kempston front line and The Oaks defence to produce the greatest one-two of all time!

The last moment of the first half saw Jordan pick up his first booking of the season, when he tried to control a high ball only for a Kempston player to step in front of him. The result was Jordan leaving a few stud marks on the inside of the Kempston midfielders leg.

Martin White was never forced to make a save in the first half, with his only action claiming Kempstons over hit through-balls.

The Oak headed into half time with a 1-0 lead, and following a pumped up team talk headed into the second half full of confidence.

Unfortunately, Kempston hadnt read the script and scored within the first 5 minutes of the restart. The Kempston number 10 turned Andy Palombella inside, then outside, then inside again and delivered a scuffed low cross right across the face of The Oaks goal. The scuff deceived all of The Oaks defence and Claudio Jordans untimely slip gifted the chance of a goal to Kempstons number 9, who just managed to catch it with his studs from 2 yards out. White was wrong footed and could only watch it trickle into the Oaks net.

This goal still never really shifted the flow of the game. It was still end-to-end stuff. Jordan had 2 chances to score his first goal of 2008, when The Oak worked 2 moves from the left hand side of the pitch right thorough to play Jordan in just inside the 18 yard box, but Jordan blazed both chances straight over Kempstons goal.

The Oak then won a free kick in a similar position to the one that Cooney scored in the first half. This time Cooney hit his cross to the back post and both Cox and Liam Boland went up for the ball. Cox pushed Boland, but Boland still managed to put his header away only for the referee to dis-allow the goal for a push . . . but the only push inside the box was Cox on Boland.

From the free kick, a hopeful long ball was cut out by Sean Boland. As Boland turned to the rest of the team to tell them all about how fast he was, Kempston took the throw-in quickly, Bolands man wandered into the box un-marked and squared the ball to Kempstons number 10 8 yards out. A last ditch slide from Minney was enough to put the striker off and he hit his short well wide, saving Boland from any embarresment. But in true Seany B Fashion he still managed to blame someone else for not telling him that his man had run off him!

The game was now anyones for the taking, but the Oak were the better side. A cross from Stevens fell straight to the feet of Turner inside the Kempston box but for some reason, Turner tried to head the ball and it caught him on the shoulder/ ear. The ball come back out of the box and another chance had gone.

Then came the Oaks winning goal. A ball over the top from Cox fell to the feet of Stevens 7 yards out. Stevens blasted the ball into the roof of the net and the Oak celebrated in style.

Birdsall then made his first change with 10 minutes to go, changing himself for Martin O Donovan. O Donovan was given a specific task and carried it out well after a nervy first 2 minutes.

With 5 minutes to go, Kempston pushed forward with a 7 man attack to try and claim a second goal. The Oak seemed to deal with everything Kempston could throw at them, throwing themselves in front of every shot.

White then produced a world class fingertip save when he looked like he was going to be lobbed, tipping it over the bar when he looked like having no chance of reaching it.

Cooney then had another chance to deliver a free kick into a dangerous area. With Cox, Minney, Boland and Jordan all unmarked at the back post, the Oak looked destined to grab a 3rd only for Cooney to hit his free kick over every one trickling out for a goal kick.

Another chance saw Kempstons number 10 run one-on-one with White, who came rushing out from his goal sending the Kempston striker wide. He shot and a great reflex save saved the day again.

With a minute to go, the last chance of the game came when the ball fell to the feet of Kempstons number 8. One-on-one with White 4 yards out, he pulled back to shoot and a last ditch tackle from Stevens allowed the ball to ricochet off of the Kempston Midfielders foot straight over the bar to safety.

It was now desperate times, and everytime the ball fell to an Oak player they booted it to safety. The final whistle went and the Oak had won the battle.

A special mention has to go to the youngsters, who ran there nuts off in this game. Jordan, Turner and Stevens especially but it was a great performance all round.

Next week sees Flitwick visit the Lions Den. The Oak have played 4th place Flitwick twice this season already, and with one win a piece it looks like being a cracking game.
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Player Ratings:

(3-5-2)

Martin White 9. . . Dream Team Star Man

Andy Palombella 7
Sean Boland 7
Dave Minney 8

Chris Birdsall 7 (Martin O Donovan 6)
Claudio Jordan 8
Paul Stevens 8
Liam Boland 7
Michael Cooney 7

Michael Cox 7
Lloyd Turner 8
Sub Not Used: Wayne Aylott
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Dream Team Star Man: Martin White . . . Produced 2 saves at the end that Petr Cech would have been proud of! Never put a foot wrong all game.