Leighton Town’s Cup involvement came to a dramatic end on Tuesday with defeat away at Ampthill Town. Despite a good second half fight back and two well taken goals, an energetic Ampthill did enough to progress to the third round of the Gladwish Challenge Trophy.
In front of what could be deemed one of the home side’s biggest attendances of 254, the Amps flew out of the starting blocks. Attacking their boisterous support behind Connor Coulston’s goal, Ampthill fired a few early warning strikes before a ball in behind was Leighton’s undoing on nine minutes.
Sam Holmes latched on to the pass before rounding Coulston to slide into an open net. As the crowd upped the volume, the Town players could only look on – and they’d be hit with the old one-two not much later.
More Ampthill pressure saw a corner on the right come in and an unmarked Ashley Mead leaped highest to nod into the top right corner 13 minutes in. The visitors were really on the back foot and even when venturing into the other half, seemed relatively harmless.
Leighton tried to get a foot on the ball and hold on to possession, but Ampthill pressed well and punished their opponents with another goal just after the half hour mark. The yellow’s winger ran down the left and did well to beat a determined Ethan Flanagan before pulling back for Michael Fullerton to tap in finishing off the move.
Before the half was out, Leighton offered little going forward. Efforts from both young George Kerr and Sam Olawale hardly tested the keeper. The team talk couldn’t come quick enough it seemed.
In the second period, Bonham’s side looked to bounce back from a poor first half showing. The first real flicker of a Leighton attack was through a Tom Bryant sighter from a free kick. After that, pressure from the away team forced multiple blocks with attempts from Luke Pyman and then Bryant.
On 53 minutes, the hard work prevailed and in some fashion too. On his full first team debut, George Kerr rifled one cleanly from the edge of the box into the top left corner, momentarily silencing the baying mob behind the goal.
It wouldn’t be long before the Ampthill faithful would be stumped again. On 59 minutes, it was Tom Bryant who curled the second goal into the roof of the net after the ball bobbled about the box with the hosts struggling to clear.
It set up a tense final half hour, but the hosts did well to bat away everything that Leighton threw at them. The most notable effort gone awry was from Ashton Campbell who was forced too wide left before hardly worrying the keeper. Town could feel hard done by though, as Ross Adams looked to catch a high foot in the head in the box. However, apart from that Ampthill held out and now progress to the third round of the cup. For Leighton Town, preparations now begin for a journey to 13th place Broadfields United in the league on Saturday.