Kings down to second place after Fleet Town stalemate

There was another twist in the Southern League Division 1 Central title race in midweek as Kings Langley were held to a 0-0 draw by Fleet Town.
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This fixture originally took place three days before Christmas, but was abandoned at half-time due to torrential rain, with Kings leading by a Mitchell Weiss goal.

On a balmy spring evening, Kings lined up without the injured Plowright and Toomey, while Fleet had the worries of a lengthy injury list added to by losing Craig Martin after seven minutes.

Kings began with a 3-5-1-1 system that looked cumbersome, and Fleet, attacking from the off, exploited the visiting right flank when a pacy run and shot by Rob Carr was met by a flying block by Xavi Comas.

Tactics were adjusted, but the keeper was beaten by a lob hit back in from a rebound that saw Danny Hutchins clear off the line and a Simba Mlambo shot was tipped over as Town asked the majority of the questions.

Kings gradually responded, with a Dean Hitchcock shot just over, a four man move seeing Gary Connolly just wide and a rampaging run by Callum Adebiyi almost break the deadlock.

The home number 9, Ben White was posing a variety of problems, but received a head injury in an attack on the stroke of half-time and was to take no further part in the contest.

He would probably have made more of a poor clearance by Comas, blocked by his replacement Craig Stanley, but the danger was scrambled clear.

The game continued at a ferocious pace with Fleet having good chances through Carr and a Liam Gilbert free-kick, while Stuart Deaton was agonisingly close with a header at the other end, having come up for a corner.

Lone striker Weiss looked increasingly isolated as Kings attempted to find a way through, but there was late drama as Xavi Comas had to vacate his area to clear a break, the ball was pumped straight back to the goal, but Hutchins had dropped to the goal-line to repeat his rescue act.

Then, in the fourth and final minute of time added on, Fleet had the ball in the net from a scrambled corner, only to have it disallowed for a foul on the keeper.

Both sides were applauded off for their part in a contest that was anything but a no-score bore draw and a gritty Kings performance won a hard earned point as Egham beat Royston to take the top spot on goal difference

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