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Sat 21 Nov 2015  ·  Division 1 Central
Leighton Town F C
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Royston Town
Leighton Town 1 - Royston 2

Leighton Town 1 - Royston 2

Andrew Parker23 Nov 2015 - 20:23
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Leighton Town 1 - Royston 2

It was another tricky fixture for Town this week with the visit of Royston Town, and like last week against Chalfont St Peter Leighton put in another really good performance.

Town started the game quickly as they usually do and had the first half chance of the game within the first minutes of the game. A corner was swung in from Jack Copson but it was headed out for another corner by Dan Braithwaite. Copson took the corner again and it was only cleared as far as Alex O'Brien and his shot from the edge of the D was only just over the top of the crossbar.

Town were pressuring Royston into making mistakes and losing possession and their manager Steve Castle was being extremely vocal telling his players that he wasn't happy with their performance. Leighton were piling on the pressure and James Hatch had the next chance of the game with a deflected shot that led to another corner.

This seemed to wake Royston up who started to have chances of their own. Their first chance of the game came through Braithwaite who had a shot after they broke into the Leighton half. Clear cut chances came for Royston after this as a Royston corner was cleared but it was whipped back in again as Rob Mason nearly scored a header and his effort was an inch wide. At the moment Royston were on top but Leighton always look dangerous on the counter.

Brad Kirkwood was having a great game in goal for Leighton as Erkan Okay floated a nice ball into Rhys Hoeness whose resulting shot was clawed wide for the corner by Kirkwood and he then saved the resulting corner.

Danny May was possibly lucky to stay on the pitch after a bad tackle on Craig Maisiri who was down in pain for quite a while and May was booked for the challenge. He was off the pitch for quite a few minutes before coming back on.

Royston were pressing high up the pitch but Leighton were defending well against this pressure. For a free kick Royston had 8 players in the Leighton box for example.

It was Royston who got the first goal of the game courtesy of skipper Scott Bridge. He stepped up to take a free kick around 20 yards out and it nestled into the bottom corner. It was a fantastic strike and there was nothing Town could've done about that. After the goal Leighton were struggling to break Royston down who were quite a physical side with a lot of shoves and pushes, and Royston maintained possession well.

By half-time Royston had had the better of the chances but Leighton had positives to take from the half. Kirkwood was having a good game in goal and Pierre Hazet was making some great tackles as well.

The second half began and Royston were the quickest to react. A good cross from Hoeness reached Luke Robins. Town then made the first sub of the game with Dan Olusemo coming on for Hateley Mercer who was on a yellow.

Leighton then equalized on the 52nd minute with a moment of magic from skipper Ben Gallant. The ball came in to him in the 18 yard area and he lobbed the keeper from about 15 yards out who just watched the ball sail over him and into the top left corner and what a goal it was too.

The goal definitely galvanized Town who were now breaking with pace. They were keeping the ball in the Royston half who seemed to crumble under pressure.To try to stop this Royston made a double substitution with Kaan Fehmi and George Powell coming on for Robins and Joe De La Salle. Dave Brown nearly put Town 2-1 up after a through ball was played into him Ronnie Yates could only palm the shot as far as Gallant who should've done better at the second time of asking but his shot was straight into the arms of Yates.Leighton were now having all the chances and Curtis Shaw who had come as a sub for Leighton put a cross in for Hatch to head but it was inches wide in the end.

At the other end Royston skipper Bridge could've put them 2-1 up but Kirkwood pulled off a great double save and then claimed the resulting corner. However a terrible goalkick from Royston 'keeper Yates nearly let Gallant in again as he kicked it straight to him but thankfully for Yates his touch was a tad heavy and it went out for a throw.

Brown and Gallant were playing very well in this second half but the decisive goal came 2 minutes before the end through a Royston corner. The corner came in and Braithwaite shot straight at the keeper but Liam McDevitt was there to score a header in an empty net from 2 yards out and he couldn't miss from there.The goal came against the run of play and Town don't deserve to lose but the game finished 2-1 to Royston.

Overall Leighton deserved a point that was cruelly snatched from them but Kirkwood, Hazet, Brown and Gallant all had very good games for Town in particular. The performance was also promising especially in the second half and Town will start to get results soon, they've been playing well for these last 2 home games but haven't got the results from them that they deserve.

On Tuesday Town are Away to AFC Rushden and also Away on Saturday to Godalming .

Match details

Match date

Sat 21 Nov 2015

Kickoff

15:00

Attendance

68

Competition

Division 1 Central
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