After a hard earned point at the much fancied Berkhamsted Town on Tuesday night with goals from O’Brien and Ashley, Leighton went into Saturday’s game at St Margaretsbury full of confidence.

It was, however, a frustrating afternoon, as Town squandered a plethora of chances and in the end emerged from a game that they expected to win, with only a share of the points.

Respect must go to St Margaretsbury; they were good value for their point but Leighton must view this as two points dropped as opposed to a point won, if they are to mount a serious challenge at the top of the Spartan South Midlands Premier League league this season

In truth, Leighton should have wrapped this game up in the first half hour but were guilty of some wayward finishing and poor decision making in the final third.

Alex O’Brien was once again at the heart of much of Leighton’s best football and he and skipper Marsala created an array of opportunities that both Ashley and Smith failed to convert.

After ten minutes excellent closing down by Tappin and O’Brien allowed the latter to release Smith who intelligently squared the ball to Ashley. With the goal at his mercy the young wide man hesitated, allowing man of the match Stevenson to block and prevent Town taking a deserved lead.

St Margaretsbury also had their own periods of domination during the first half and Leighton had to defend well on a number of occasions with Hatch, Guiney, Murphy and talented young keeper Wyant, particularly impressive.

Indeed on the stroke of half-time Wyant made an outstanding save from Ruff, as only a finger-tip save to a vicious curling effort from the young St Margaretsbury striker, kept the teams even at the break.

The second half was an even affair and both sides had chances to steal all the points.

Wyant was forced into action again as he once again demonstrated his agility by tipping over a dangerous header from Mitchell, following a St Margaretsbury corner.

The young keeper is getting stronger and more assured with each game and the injured Bradley Kirkwood has certainly got competition to win back his place as he continues to recover from a nasty ankle injury.

With Leighton short of ideas and inspiration as the half progressed, Hatch was moved into the attack and this switch sparked Town into life.

On 80 minutes his header was superbly saved by the alert Seymour in the St Margaretsbury goal, after excellent interplay between young midfielders Tappin and Pursey.

With only minutes remaining Leighton should have taken the lead. A well worked move saw Pursey release Smith who chose to shoot wildly over the bar when a square ball to O’Brien would have left the midfielder with the simplest of opportunities to convert.

Leighton’s last chance to steal all three points came in the 90th minute as Seymour in the home team goal made a superb save with his legs to deny Tappin.

Overall it was a disappointing day at the office for town. Nevertheless, with Towell and Marsh available next Saturday after a holiday, the influential Lewis McBride due to return shortly after injury and Condon/Kirkwood/ Resch (injury) McKee (travelling), also available soon, Town have a squad that is more than capable of putting this disappointment behind them and remaining in touch with the leading pack in this season’s promotion battle.

Next up for ‘The Reds’ is an FA Vase game against local rivals Leverstock Green at Bell Close on Saturday 23 September.

Report by

Sean Downey