This last Saturday saw the dons make the short journey across to graves park home of Kirton Town, everyone was in good spirit after the last two wins, and the squad was relatively injury free, missing from the usual line up was Dave slaughter and Oli Gedney deputising was Lloyd Ogilvie and coming into the squad from the bench to start was Kyle Graves. The manager Mark Stanhope and assistant Andy Stanhope were the two subs
Both teams tested each other in the first few mins, both looked capable of scoring, Kirton with a few early corners and tame shots dealt with by Jamie Hall returning into goal from injury, Dons too had their chances the Kirton keeper saving well and a couple of tame shots wide of the mark, then in the 18 th minuet dons got the break a good move down the left and Lloyd Ogilvie squared the ball into the path of Kyle Graves to easily side foot the ball home unchallenged. Then Jamie Hall was called into action to turn a fierce Kirton shot around the post for a corner but the resulting corner was poor. It was from a corner in the 28th minuet though from a another Jamie Hall saved shot that Kirton got a little bit lucky, the corner was swung over and a bit of confusion in the box, ended with Lloyd Ogilvie trying to clear the ball but only succeeded in lifting the ball into the roof of his own net, Kirton carried on pressing but were well thwarted by the dons strong defence. Dons had chances of their own too and it was from one of these a corner, that Kieran Rose delivered a pin point cross into the box, for Martin Fox to rise high above everyone else and power a bullet headed into the back of the net .Dons could have increased their lead to a smart turn and powerful shot inside the box from Wayne Foster brought a smart save from the Kirton keeper at the second attempt, but as the half time whistle was blown dons were still holding on to their 2-1 lead.
As soon as the second half started it was all hands to the deck for the Dons, kirton pressed relentlessly for the equaliser some dogged defending and a good safe from Jamie Hall, kept them out. Then a harshly awarded free kick just outside the area, the Don’s keeper could only parry the shot wide but was alert to turn the rebound around for a corner. Then a few minutes later another long range shot which the keeper dived high to his right and caught (this was a camera shot I think) another good save and the danger gone, Dons should have wrapped the game up half way through the half, when another Kieran Rose corner found Jonny Butler with the goal wide open but he smashed his shot high and wide over the bar. A few strong words from the captain Liam Pitts encouraging the team to dig deep ,and this is what they had to do, it was mostly Kirton pressure now, and with some woeful refereeing decisions ,and the Dons camped on the edge of their own penalty area, defending this one goal lead, Man of the match Jamie Hall had to make another brilliant save diving down by his left hand post and turning a goal bound shot around for yet another Kirton corner,kirton had a couple more chances late on but with their shots going wide it was the Old Doningtonians who took all points home, another three points won another victory deserved and now they have a break from the league for a couple of weeks, and can look forward to a few hard cup games.......well done Dons.
