Tale of two King’s as Calne claim another draw (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Tale of two King’s as Calne claim another draw

4:28pm Thursday 22nd December 2005 in Football

ROBBIE Lardner is hoping his side will be able to turn a few of their draws into wins during the second half of the season.

Calne have lost just twice in 18 league games this season, but have drawn seven.

This weekend they picked up another draw at Bremhill View against a well-organised Bridgwater Town side. Boss Lardner admitted, however, that sometimes a draw is a great result.

He said: "You could argue that if we had won three or four of those draws we would be up in third or fourth, but equally if we had lost those we would not be so high.

"We have had a few frustrating results where we should have won the game, but then we could have lost this weekend to Bridgwater. Fortunately we scored in the last few minutes."

On ten minutes Calne's James Lye broke from midfield and crossed from the right for Glenn Armstrong to nod down into the path of Gary Banks, but he fired wide from eight yards.

The visitors' best chance of the first half arrived on 24 minutes when Alex Stephens' pacey run down Calne's left caused panic in the home defence, and when Ryan King saw the opening, his effort was thwarted by a superb block by defender Steve Casey.

Then, just before half-time, Chris King headed Lye's free kick wide with Casey waiting in a better position just behind.

For long spells in the second half Bridgwater held the upper hand in terms of possession, but Calne always looked the more incisive on the break.

On 58 minutes Ben Moore came close when his shot from Lye's square pass was superbly blocked by goalkeeper Chico Ramos.

Then the two Kings came to the fore as first Bridgwater's Ryan King was denied by Chris King's sliding tackle with the goal gaping, but the former made no mistake when he volleyed in a 20-yarder to put his side a goal up.

Calne went straight on the offensive and, with five minutes left, parity was resumed when Chris King poked the ball in at the near post.