Written by Andrew Madaras
Photos by Liam Smith
A first defeat of the season in the League for Joe Deeney’s men was greeted with a unanimous display of solidarity and support from the Club’s supporters, who despite the heavy falling rain and “collective bad day at the office” performance, gave the players and coaching staff a standing ovation and some of the loudest singing of “Oh Dunstable We Love You” heard all afternoon.
All credit to Stotfold who moved to the top of the League and opened up a two point lead over second place Crawley Green. For the Blues, now in 8th place it meant the last win had been four weeks earlier v Leighton Town with three successive away draws coming before Saturday.
Before kick off, Dunstable were rightly proud to announce the signing of Danny Webb from Newport Pagnell Town FC. Danny is a proven goalscorer at this level and also has the distinction of being part of Newport Pagnell’s FA Vase winning team of last season.
Webb looked lively on his debut with intelligent positioning and running and early doors had the ball in the back of the net only to see the Assistant Referee’s flag go up to chalk them off.
Good pressure at the start of each half from the Blues though were false dawns. Stotfold were too well organized, disciplined and as Deeney said in his post-match interview with Andy Burrows on the Talk of the Town podcast out thought and outfought our boys today.
Deeney apologized to the Club’s supporters for the performance and as we all knew he would, took responsibility and made himself available to every supporter afterwards who wanted to know his thoughts on what had gone wrong and not until every question had been answered and every sponsor had been given the opportunity to pick his brain did he leave Creasey Park as the last man out to go home and look at the match footage, no doubt many times over the weekend.
Dunstable will be ruing their long injury list and the suspensions to McCrohan & Faulkner, but the team, on paper anyway, should have provided tougher opposition than it did.
Stotfold’s first goal came on the half hour and an even better second came less than 10 minutes later. The last time they had been behind by two goals was in the FA Cup defeat to Shefford Town & Campton two months earlier.
Before the hour mark, Dunstable made the first of three substitutions with Ruari Mills replaced by Sean Immanuel. It was Immanuel’s 89th minute winner in the last round of the Isuzu FA Vase v Norwich CBS which has served up a tasty looking tie against Enfield FC at Creasey Park this Friday.
Could his mercurial boots magic a goal out of the gloomy conditions? The floodlights were on at 4.15 pm to signal the clocks going back the previous weekend. Clubs will be given the option of 2 pm kick off times to try and save money and energy over the winter months.
As the minutes ticked by Dunstable’s rhythm petered out. Stotfold had withstood a couple of chances from the home team. On another day, with the rub of the green and one of them goes in, it becomes a different game, but when your luck is out, they don’t.
The game was effectively won on 70 minutes when Stotfold scored their third and then adding salt to the wounds popped up with a fourth just three minutes later.
The Stotfold boys kept their shape and locked the door at the back and were able to return to their home ground for the firework celebrations.
Their goals were scored by Briggs, Coppin, Sayer and Spavins. Man of the Match, Mason Spence.
Dunstable will be looking to bounce back on Tuesday night in the Gladwish Challenge Trophy. As a thank you to the Club’s Gold and Platinum owners and season ticket holders’ admission is free. Otherwise admission charges of £8 adults, £5 concessions, £3 for 13-17 year olds, and 12 and under free.
Our opponents are Northamptonshire side, Moulton FC, who play in Division 1 of the SSML. Kick off is 7.45 pm.
72 hours later and it is the big one. Enfield FC come to town in the 2nd round of the Isuzu FA Vase.
A reminder that the game is being played on Friday evening at Creasey Park with a 7.45 kick off. Farmhouse Catering have teamed up with the Club and will be serving up hot pies and mash from inside the ground. Mark & his team are normally at the Kenny looking after Luton supporters on matchdays but we’re absolutely delighted to have secured his services for select games this season and to have negotiated a discount for the Club’s owners and Blue Card Holders.
Season tickets & Owner’s complimentary tickets are NOT valid for this tie.
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