Kings Lynn Town 1   Cheshunt 0 

The opening 15 minutes of the match looked ominous for the travelling Ambers as the Kings Lynn midfield cut through them with ease to supply their forwards with plenty of ammunition. However, once through they found Cheshunt’s Assistant Manager and goalkeeper in very good form keeping them at bay until his team settled down. 

Cheshunt gradually worked out the midfield rotations taking place in front of them & started to press the home side aggressively with new confidence, forcing Kings Lynn to rush passes, then picking them off high up the pitch.  Tommy Wood kept the Centre halves busy, while Khris Oti & Jeremy Bisau attacked from wide. The Lynn keeper did well to get down low to his right to an Oti shot across him, while Bisau & Wood had chances.   

The Ambers midfield grew into the match realising they could compete with their National League opponents, captain Jack Thomas earning a yellow card as he gave as good as he got in the battle for territory in the middle, his tenacity freed up Sam Granville & Nathaniel Orafu to run at the Kings Lynn defence forcing them onto the back foot throughout the rest of the first half. An experienced home defence just about managed to keep the Ambers at bay , but conceded corners & throw ins where Raul Da Silva & Remi Sutton could move forward to be an aerial threat in the opposition box. 

It remained 0-0 at half time but with Cheshunt having had the better of the exchanges & the Kings Lynn manager happy not to be behind. 

More of the same was the request for the second half but it failed to live up to billing, a number of visits by the physios and a succession of free kicks broke up both sides ability to get their games flowing, this may have been to Cheshunt’s advantage as the home side started get on top, as a full time team the expectation would be the last quarter would be hard work for Cheshunt. Furlong Da Silva & Sutton did well to keep the dangerous Gold Omotayo with his back to goal a good distance from the Cheshunt goal & Taylor Miles slotting in at right back was covering a lot of ground trying to keep the Lynn wide men at bay. 

The stop start nature of the second half broke concentrations as well as play & Kings Lynn midfielder  Tom Hughes took advantage, picking up a pass mid way in the Cheshunt half the Ambers backed off to protect the 18 yard box instead of closing him down & with little support to his right he advanced himself and placed a clipped lob just beyond the reach of Edwards in the Ambers goal. 

Substitutions for Cheshunt bought fresh legs with Oti moving central & Vas Vasiliou & Dernell Wynter taking on the duties wide, MJ Muyembe came into the middle to give more impetus to the last ten minutes & Fionn Murphy, at seventeen, came on to make his debut for the first team, having already represented Cheshunt u 18s and U23s this season. 

An additional seven minutes gave the Ambers hope in trying to force a replay, with a number of long throws, corners & free kicks swung into the home penalty area at every opportunity, alas the experience at the back for Lynn helped see them in Monday’s draw, but having known they had to battle to get there.