Merton Rovers suffered their first competitive defeat of the season and will not thank either the referee, whose punctuality and erratic perception of the rule book baffled the crowd watching, or KC's luck for the result.

Rovers were one nil down after 10 minutes when a cross into their penalty area was not dealt with allowing the ball run into the path of KC's number 10, who made the first of his two contributions to the game when he tucked the loose ball into the back of the net.

KC increased their lead further when a hotly contested free kick was nodded in from 15 yards out by a KC midfielder.

This second goal spurred Rovers into action and Tienne Marola cut in from the left wing to cross superbly for Mark Ford to finish from a tight angle at the far post.

Shortly after this Tony Mclean made a superb run and the subsequent one-two with Marola saw him skip into the area where he was crudely hauled down by a KC defender. Midfield enforcer Danny Revell stepped up to take the penalty and stuck it left footed into the bottom corner past the despairing dive of the opposition keeper.

After this equaliser the game got bogged down in the midfield with not much to choose between the two sides and with Rovers performance well below par the game seemed to be heading for a draw.

Suddenly, a routine back-pass from a Rovers defender was only half cleared by the keeper and this allowed the KC number 10 to make his second contribution to the game as he squared the ball to an unmarked KC striker to tap into the empty net.

From this point onwards it was all one way and Merton Rovers' play improved as they were spurred on by the fact they were facing their first league defeat of the season.

The referee continued to make several interesting and contested decisions and this attempted to break Rovers attacking flow. Even so, KC was restricted to pumping long high balls into Rovers' half and penalty box.

One of Rovers slick moves saw another penalty awarded to Rovers but with onlookers wishing the ball into the back of the KC net, Danny Revell's second strike from 12 yards was saved by the KC keeper.

Even so, Rovers had several good chances to equalise and win this match but it was not to be and as the final whistle was blown the KC players and management celebrated like they had won a Cup Final.