Town fall at County cup first hurdle
A young Hatters dev squad fell to a 1-0 defeat at Kenilworth Road in first round of the Beds Senior Cup – with the brother of Scott Griffiths scoring AFC Dunstable’s second half winner.
The Town fielded six youth team players alongside Magnus Okuonghae, Mark O’Brien, Mark Onyemah, Matt Robinson and trialist striker Francois Zoko.
A low-key first period saw the Hatters dominate but couldn’t seriously test Dunstable goalkeeper Ricky Perks.
Four minutes into the second half Town goalkeeper Liam Gooch turned Bernie Christie’s rasping effort onto the crossbar.
However, shortly before the hour, AFC Dunstable took the lead when Terry Griffiths slid the ball home inside the six yard box after Newman Carney’s low shot from the edge of the box rebounded off the post.
Behind, the Town upped the urgency and tempo in search of an equaliser to take the tie to penalties. Matt Robinson saw a top-corner bound free-kick from 25 yards clawed away by Perks with 20 minutes left, before substitute Freddie Hinds sent a shot on the turn wide four minutes later.
As the Town continued to press, Zoko – who was on the books at Blackpool and Bradford last season – saw a low shot from the edge of box strike the post on 79 minutes.
But that was the closest the Town came to finding a late leveller and AFC were left to celebrate reaching the second round of the competition.
The Hatters dev squad are next in action at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday 27th October in the Final Third Development League (1pm).
Town dev: Gooch; Justin, Onyemah, Okuonghae, Musonda; O’Brien, Robinson, Cotter (sub Murray 85), Atkinson, Bakinson (sub Hinds 67), Zoko.
Subs not used: Famewo, King, McGhan-George.
Attendance: 187.