A miserable dull, grey damp day was matched with a miserable performance from Austen that saw them somehow squander a 0-2 lead, and come away scarping a draw, against a side that they had beaten 9-1 previously.

There was a change to the starting line-up this week with Mason-Soards starting sub with Hepburn allowing Ahmed to play in central midfield and Lobjoit in his familiar centre back role; the full line-up was: Newport/Andrews-Coventry-Lobjoit-Wheeler/Marshall-Ahmed-Courtney-Thornton/Adague-Thompson

Austen started brightly with three chances in the first five minutes. Ahmed played Thompson a through ball down the left wing but he scuffed his shot wide left. Thornton stood up a superb ball from the right wing, that only needed a touch to put in the net, but neither Marshall nor Thompson in the box could provide it. Thornton had the ball in the net after he'd passed the ball into the box for Marshall, whose sliced shot came back to him, and he poked the ball into the net; but he was offside.

Knebworth rallied and, with the Austen defence a shambles, managed to pen Austen into their half for a while, forcing a good save from Newport.

But, on twenty-five minutes, it was Austen who took the lead when Courtney played an excellent through ball to Thompson who rounded the keeper, and half the defence, and then, just when it looked like he'd taken a touch too much, he easily tapped the ball into the net.

Austen went in ahead at half-time in what was a fairly even half with few goal attempts for either side.

Seven minutes after the restart Austen extended their lead with Courtney once again feeding Thompson who rounded the keeper, scoring low to the keeper's right.

Knebworth still had plenty of fight in them despite an injury to their keeper and on forty minutes they scored with a ball across goal from the right wing that was stabbed in across the Austen goal.

With the Austen defence in complete disarray, and Courtney down injured, Knebworth deservedly drew level on forty-seven minutes with a ball swung in from the right-wing to the left, and then stabbed low across goal to go in by the far post.

Having beaten this team 9-1 previously Austen probably expected this game to be a walk in the park, whereas Knebworth perhaps were keen to restore some pride and were worthy of at least a draw. Poor performances from the midfield, but especially the defence, cost Austen dearly, but at 0-2 up it looked like they had done enough to win the game, but credit must go to Knebworth who kept on battling, and were the harder working side. Whereas previous games have seen some good passing from Austen, today's was a more lackadaisical hit and hope affair with little use of the width. One bright spark in the defence was Josh Andrews who gave his usual solid hardworking performance, which often goes un-noticed, and deservedly won the man of the match award.