Town Defeated After Tring Athletic Goal Rush

The Town travelled to The Grassroots Stadium (Cow Lane), to take on an in form Tring Athletic side on Saturday Afternoon.

The Town lined up in their usual system, with no drastic changes to the side, with Kelvin Osei-Addo returning to league action, as well as Aaron McKee, who was on the bench.
The Town have been notorious for their fast starts this season, but this time it was far from it, quite frankly, it was embarrassing to watch.
Inside 4 minutes, Tring were in front.
Ashton Campbell went through chasing a long ball and miss communication between Wyant and Murphy allowed Campbell to lift the ball over Wyant and into the back of the net.
4 minutes later, the lead was doubled by Athletic.
Tring’s playmaker Kieran Turner was given far too much space on the right side of the penalty area and he curled a strike sublimely into the top left corner, beating Wyant all ends up. 2-0.
Things just went from bad to worse for The Town, as 2 minutes later, it was 3.
A scrappy goal mouth scramble was reportedly bundled over the line by Jack Read, making the game seem over after 10 minutes had been played at Cow Lane.
Tring would then miss a huge chance to make it 4. Alex O’Brien was disposed in the centre of the park by Turner and he drove forward without either of the Town centre backs applying any pressure. However, he dragged his shot wide, a huge let off.
That wouldn’t stop Tring for breaching Leighton’s defence for a 4th time.
Captain, Dave Murphy with an out of character mistake meant Tring were allowed to break forward in numbers once more. The ball was fired across goal and Elliott Goward finished with ease making it 4, 20 minutes into the game.
Cheers rang out from the Tring fans, as they were certain this was heading for a cricket score.
Everyone was looking at Danny Nicholls waiting for him to change something or sort his team out and he tried to do just that.
A double change saw Paolo Baggati and Brian Foulger make way for Aaron McKee and Jamie Nicholls.
The Town then went to a back 3 of Muya, Murphy and Hall.
Tom Wyant was then called into action again, twice in quick succession.
Ashton Campbell was played clean through, but Wyant was equal to the shot and parried it away and Kieran Turner blasted the rebound over.
Then, Wyant pulled off a sensational acrobatic save to deny a Tring midfielder. The Leighton Shot-stopper palmed the ball away magnificently to keep the score line at 4.
Wyant’s hard work couldn’t stop it being 5-0 at half time.
Ashton Campbell made it 5 with a right footed drive into the bottom left corner, meaning Leighton would need 6 second half goals to take all 3 points at Cow Lane.
A simply disgraceful first half performance from Leighton Town.
The second half would mean playing for pride and trying to keep the score line down.
But after 3 second half minutes, the score line was increased again.
Elliott Goward fired home from the left side of the box to the bottom right corner, to take even the smallest dream of a comeback away from Leighton.
Minutes ticked by very slowly as the Town struggled to string 2 passes together and Tring looked more and more likely to score again.
Aaron McKee slipped on the half way line which meant Ashton Campbell had a huge opportunity for a hat-trick. Tom Wyant stood in his way and he made a great save to deny Campbell. Goward then followed up with a shot that struck the Town post. Luckily, it was still only 6-0.
Tring then made 2 changes one of them, Ashton Campbell coming off for Tommy Twelves.
Denilson Silva was also replaced by the energetic Dom Marsala, returning from injury.
Tom Wyant then made 2 more fantastic stops, despite conceding 7 goals on Saturday afternoon, he was for me, Leighton’s man of the match, making so many great saves to keep the score line below double figures. Well played Tom.
Tring made their final change of the afternoon with Kieran Turner coming off.
On the 70th minute mark, the unthinkable happened.
Leighton scored! Great work from Lewis McBride on the right hand side allowed him to drive into the box. He squared for Tom Bryant, who adjusted his feet quickly and opened up a yard of space to allow him a chance to shoot. He took that chance and Leighton made it 6-1, with 20 minutes to go, taking away the clean sheet from Tring, which can be one of the only positives from the game.
Tom Wyant then denied Tommy Twelves from a low drive and Elliott Goward from a header.
Tring had one final opportunity to make it 7 and they took it.
Substitute Tommy Twelves fired past Wyant from the left hand side of the box, meaning that the game would end, 7-1 to Tring Athletic.
There’s bad days at the office and then there’s that.
The Town were simply nowhere near good enough on this occasion and there’s no way of dressing the performance up to make it sound like we were unlucky, the score line speaks for itself.
It’s not every day that you lose 7-1 and your goalkeeper is man of the match.
Nicholls and his team go again next Saturday, with a trip to highly rated Arlesey Town, to try and claw back some pride after Saturday’s humiliation and to see some familiar faces from last season.
Come and support the Town as they try and put things right next Saturday. With the international break, why not sample what Non League has to offer and make the trip to Arlesey!
We go again, Up The Town.

Reported by, Kieran Carvell.