Leighton Town’s hopes of defending their Bedfordshire Senior Cup crown came to an end last night with defeat to Biggleswade United on penalties. It was a cruel way to lose at Bell Close, after an initially close 90 minutes ended 1-1.
Aside from an early Reece Robins corner that nearly went straight in, this tie began relatively slowly. It looked to be a case of possession, but not a lot of action in front of goal. A goal before the break from the visitors seemed to wake everyone up. Conor Inskip collected the ball on the right and floated in a tempting cross. Yemi Adelani escaped his markers and fired home well on 40 minutes.
In the second half, Leighton had some catching up to do and Bircham opted to refresh his side. Kyle Connolly emerged for Kwai Marsh-Brown and the dangerous Leon Lobjoit replaced Lewis Toomey.
These changes looked to bring more life to the hosts. On 62’, a Lobjoit cross was put behind for a corner. From that set piece, Ethan Flanagan just headed wide. Town were making inroads. After further pressure, the earlier introduction of Lobjoit and Connolly would prove influential as Town equalised on 83 minutes. Connolly curled in a superb corner and Lobjoit towered over his marker to nod in at the back post.
The hosts’ tails were up now and a final offensive push earned a Leighton penalty on 88’. Unfortunately Town old-boy Ollie Leslie got down well to his left to produce a fine stop from Lobjoit’s low strike to send this one to sudden death spot kicks.
There were 14 penalties in this tense shootout as Biggleswade prevailed. A Ben Spaul miss sent the visitors through with a dramatic 4-5 score. So, commiserations at Bell Close – but now attention turns to Saturday where Town return to league action away at Harpenden.

LTFC XI: Comas; Towell, Cooper, Flanagan, Jackson, Harvey, Robins, Spaul (C), McClelland, Toomey, Marsh-Brown.
Subs: Connolly, Marsh, Lobjoit, Pyman, Akinbobola.