Regent off to a flyer!

Brightlingsea Regent made the trip down to King George’s Field, the home of Corinthian Casuals to face tenants Kingstonian.

The R’s had a few key personnel missing, with Josh Gould Suspended, Jake Turner away, Joe Maybanks, Matt Baxter and Ricky Griggs all injured.

The R’s started the game brightly and took the lead after 14 minutes, a nice through pass out of defence by Matt Cripps got Harvey Hodd motoring through, he then struck a first time right foot volley into the corner of Rob Tolfrey’s net from just outside the area. A great start for Regent!

Despite dominance, the lead only lasted 2 minutes, when Louie Theophanous broke the R’s offside trap from a lovely weighted pass by Freddy Moncur, he calmly slotted past James Bradbrook to level.

Regent responded and took the lead once again in the 24th minute, with some great intricate play in the centre of midfield, Harry Morgan looked up and strayed the ball out wide on the left for Jake Clowsley. Jake then went by his man and crossed low for Harvey Hodd to run in and score doubling his tally on debut. 1-2!

The second half started in the same fashion, with the first opportunity falling for Billy Hunt in the 54th Minute, using his strength he was able to hold the ball up and turn, shrugging off his defender, he then got his strike away on the edge of the box giving Tolfrey no chance in the K’s goal! 1-3

Regent should have killed the game and added a 4th when Darren Mills got a shot away across Tolfrey on the counter, but the Goalkeeper made an excellent save.

The K’s began to attack looking for a way back into the match, but the R’s Defence kept their resilience. With Young defender Alex Taylor filling in at the back with Gould’s absence.

Blood was beginning to boil for Kingstonain as they began to be frustrated, they were reduced to 10 after 71 minutes when Ugo Udoji was shown a second yellow for a late foul on Alex Taylor.

The 10 men of K’s kept attacking, and they were then awarded a lifeline penalty in the 84th Minute, with the Home crowd doing their best to influence the Referee. Alex Taylor was rumoured to have pulled back a Kingstonian player. The tall Substitute Muhammadu Faal stepped up and tucked away! 2-3

Late into added time, Elliott Buchanan was shown a second yellow when he fouled George Keys on the edge of the Regent box reducing the hosts down to 9 men!

Regent held on to take the points back to Essex, Our first Opening day victory in the last 3 attempts!

The R’s will be in action again this coming Tuesday as they host newly promoted Haringey Borough at the Taydal Stadium.

Up The R’s