Kings denied a draw after late goal is wrongly called offside

The young keeper was in action early, punching clear from Kevin Byrne, while Mitchell Weiss saw a low shot held by Michael Johnson at the other end as both teams tried to play football in difficult conditions.

A superb Josh Coldicott-Stevens through ball put Gareth Price through one-on-one with Johnson, but the latter got a hand to deflect the ball for a corner.

The complexion of the game changed three minutes after the restart when Town right-back Toby Syme sent over what appeared to be an intended cross but the ball floated over Hodgins into the far top corner.

Kings had some good chances and with ten minutes to go it was the turn of 16-year-old Edu Toiny-Pendred to join the fray and he played an integral part in Kings’ onslaught in search of parity.

Town were dangerous on the break and Hodgins made two good saves to deny them, but the valiant youngster could do nothing about an unmarked Patrick Tshikala converting a Josh Bickerstaff header back across goal from a free kick in the first minute of time added-on.

Undeterred, Kings hit back when the persistence of Arjun Jung ended with his low cross turned in off the far post by Mitchell Weiss a minute later to make it 2-1.

It was followed by a controversial end to the match. The fourth and last added minute was on the clock when Jung fired a shot through a clustered box and Michael Johnson made a save. The ball rebounded to Jorell Johnson, who reacted quickest, but the flag went up for offside to deny Kings a draw.

But it was actually Stevie Ward who was offside.

n See p54 for Kings’ match report from Saturday.