Two fine goals from Rocky Neal saw Town bounce back after last weekend’s defeat to beat Kings Langley 2-1 at the Viridor Stadium yesterday afternoon (13th April). It proved a crucial victory with both leaders Weymouth and Metropolitan Police losing, meaning the Peacocks are back up to second spot with just three games to play.
Town came close to opening their account on the quarter hour when Alex Tokarczyk made a fine save to tip over Ollie Chamberlain’s header before Neal broke the deadlock on 31 minutes, picking up the ball on the left and outwitting the defence before drilling home into the corner from the edge of the box. The margin was doubled just six minutes later with an even better goal, Neal launching a 30 yard special over the helpless Tokarczyk from the left side, as the Peacocks held a well-deserved lead at the interval.
Langley pulled a goal back after 63 minutes when Town failed to clear their lines from a free kick into the box and Steve Ward capitalized to loft his effort over Lloyd Irish. Tokarczyk made another great stop to deny Shane White from close range but it was the visitors who threatened the most as the game drew to its conclusion, with Irish denying Rene Howe’s lob with a superb one-handed save and then foiling Lewis Putman’s free kick and Jorell Johnson’s follow-up. The Peacocks though stood firm to claim the points and set themselves up for a crunch Easter weekend.
Head of Football Rob Dray remarked: ”In all a good day. We probably should have put the game to bed earlier but there were some good performances today especially after last week. I’ll keep saying it, nobody should doubt the resilience of this group of players. Let’s not also forget the opposition were 5th in the table and will cause issues for other teams. We now move swiftly on to two big matches over Easter including our last home game on Easter Monday when we will hopefully get a huge crowd to make the difference!”