Leighton Town 2 - 0 Marlow

Leighton Town 2 - 0 Marlow
After their convincing win over Uxbridge on Tuesday night ,Leighton and their fans were looking for a similar performance on Saturday as they looked to ensure they would gain maximum points from three games in eight days. This game however was a case of “after the Lord Mayor’s Show” as Town struggled to match the pace and intensity of their previous two games.
On a dry pitch Marlow set out their stall by lining up with 5 at the back in an attempt to gain at least a point as they struggle at the foot of the table. Town made a couple of changes with Liam Howley replacing Charlie Cunningham in central defence and Ben Gallant replaced the injured Ross Hanley in the Town midfield.
Town struggled to find their rhythm and although they kept the ball well enough in midfield there was a lack of quality in their final ball and playing only Leon Simpson in attack their early offensive efforts were foiled by a Marlow defence in which captain, Jon Case was organising his colleagues with good effect. In the 15th minute Ben Gallant played the ball inside the full back but Layne Eadie crossed the ball behind the goal . Then Enzo Silvestri put Gallant clear on the right but his low cross was cut out at the near post by Fanner in the Marlow goal. In the 38th minute Town won a corner and Leon Simpson’s glancing header was eventually gathered by the visitors keeper. A Layne Eadie freekick was then headed over the bar by Gallant. Marlow had created nothing at this stage and in all honesty it was difficult to see where a goal would come from as the visitors sat deep and denied Town space behind their defence.
Leighton got off to a good start in the second half and took the lead after 90 seconds when Andre Maltay’s cross reached Eadie beyond the back post and about 6 yards out, he controlled the ball and volleyed it back across the keeper into the far side netting and many fans were hoping this might open the flood gates but Marlow never changed their formation and Town continued to struggle to find space in the last third of the pitch. In the 57th minute Marlow striker Mealing ran at the Town goal but was forced out by the attention of four Town defenders. In the 71st minute Leighton broke down their right but Lewis McBride’s cross was grabbed at the second attempt by the keeper. Marlow nearly scored an equaliser in the 85thminute following a corner but Jake Bewley was well positioned to clear the ball away at the far post. Then Mbarmarah dragged his shot wide from 20 yards. With the game running well into injury time Leighton made certain of the points when Gallant was put through and although Fanner made a good save to his first effort the Town striker expertly struck the rebound into the net to end the visitors challenge.
After three games in eight days following a two week lay- off perhaps it was not a great surprise that Town could not match their displays earlier in the week and they were certainly not helped by a lively pitch. The only surprise for most Town fans was that their team only played with the one striker for most of the game when the visitors were clearly only out to defend. However Craig Wells could argue that the same formation had worked really well earlier in the week so there was no reason to change his formation for this game.
Town will face a much harder game next week when St. Neots are the visitors but if Town can play with the same tempo as they did against Uxbridge who would bet against them getting something from the game.
Team: Marsh, Maltay, Bewley, Howley, Deaton, Bishop, McBride, Silvestri, Simpson(McNulty70mins) Gallant, Eadie.
Subs: 12: Hanley, GK: Dodge, 14: Copson, 15:Chapman, 16; McNulty. Att :132
Fixtures
Wed. 29th 7:45 Leighton Reserves v Beaconsfield Suburban League
Sat.3 Mar 3pm Leighton Town v St. Neots Evo- Stik League.
Tues. 6 March 7:45 Leighton town v Aylesbury F.C. Evo- Stik League