ASB turned up for their festive fixture excited by one of the biggest squads of the season so far. 18 expected and Zack was scratching his head wondering how he got so luck. However with a few no shows the squad was reduced to a more manageable 14.

We started:

Rob in nets
Frange / Orv / Donny / Woody
Slough / Brian / Jordan / Franklin
Sharkey (Still drunk) / Steve

ASB started lively, pressing a twitchy Kingstonians back as the win assisted balls over the top for Sharley and Steve to chase. The first goal was coming but it took approx 10 minutes before ASB won their first corner. Orv cam out to Brian for the short corner but was waived away before Brian took advantage of the conditions to tempt the keeper off his line before the wind swung the ball back goalward to score direct from the corner. It really was a good goal, even if I do say so myself. ;-)

After that the one way traffic continued. Steve and Sharkey were running theeir socks of pressing the Kings' defence into mistake after mistake and soon after Steve had the chance to lob the keeper from 30 yards which he duly took. And again he took. Two lobbed goals in the space of 2 minutes. 3-0 ASB. At this point I kind of lose track. Jordan and Brian had some shots from the edge of the box, Jordan scoring with one. Steve started moaning about not being passed the ball as he searched for his hat-trick. eventually he was set up by Sharkey after some good work on the byline to head in his 3rd and ASB's 5th. Sharkey then had a tap in for 6 before Steve grabbed another to make it 7 (his 4th). I'm not sure if Jordan scored the next one, but by halftime it was 8-0.

The second half saw Brian and Donny rested, with Franklin coming off with an injured foot a few minutes before the end of the half as a set of studs were plonked down on his foot. Irish Dave went on up front and Sharkey dropped to midfield, Tom went to Centre half, with Zack at right midfield.

Kings' started lively in the second half, threatening the ASB goal on more than one occassion, however they soon started to tire form their energetics and as a result ASB took back thebalance of play and started to press again. It took a while before much else happened when Kings' sprung a flat ASB defences off-side trap with their left midfielder coming from deep to latch onto the pass and shot below Rob, who got a touch but just not enough to divert it wide and it rolled over the line in slow motion. Bang went the clean sheet.

Shocked back into action by losing a goal ASB went back up the park and quicly made it 9-1 with Steve grabbing his 5th. Dave was proving to be a handful with his height and soon got himself on the scoresheet following some neat play with Steve to finish to the keepers left. Dave and Steve continued to play neat one two's and Slouch, who had been terrorizing their left back all game, kept feeding them chances. It was only some (not really that bad) bad finishing that kept the game at 10-1. With about 10 minutes to go Zack rested Slouch and Jordan, with Donny and Brian coming back on to midfield...Orv moved to right mid, with a re-juggle at the back.

It wasn't long before Steve was shouting at Brian for not passing to him, but after scoring his 2nd after a neat run, he started passing it again. Steve completed his hat-trick of lobs (to take his tally to 6), and Dave finished neatly from close range after the keeper spilled a rasping shot from Orv. At 13-1 and long over as a contest it looked all over before Brian nipped onto the end of a Donny through ball to make it 14 and get his 3.

Credit goes to kings' who never resorted to dirty tricks after going so far behind. Next up is Millwall in the cup in the new year.

Brian