Chalfont St Peter 4 - Leighton Town 2

Leighton made three changes to the side that beat North Greenford on Thursday as Dave Brown, Curtis Shaw and Alkali Darboe came in for Matt Hewitt, Aaron Mckee and Kerran Birch for the important final game of the season away to Chalfont St Peter.

The hosts started the better of the two sides as Anthony Mendy forced Brad Kirkwood into making an early save from close range which Kirkwood clawed out for a corner.

Mendy caused problems for the Town defence all game and nearly found himself in range to shoot again but James Hatch made a superb tackle to stop him in his tracks. Whilst Leighton were being put under pressure in the first half from Chalfont the back 5 were dealing with the pressure well and Kirkwood made a fantastic one on one save with Mendy when he looked certain to score.

After absorbing this spell of pressure Leighton were starting to push forward themselves and pressed the Chalfont back 5, Curtis Shaw was putting goalkeeper Garry Malone under pressure and nearly dispossessed him. This seemed to work for Town as Joe Nyama found himself through on goal but his shot was high and wide in the end.

Chalfont should have gone ahead midway through the first half when Jack Mullan caught out Kirkwood, he squared it to Michael Murray, who from around six yards out had an empty net to aim at but hit it inexplicably well over the bar.

Towards the end of the first half though, Leighton started to create a host of chances; first through skipper Ben Gallant who made a fierce low cross that Malone spilled but no-one was on the end of it to tick it home.

Then Shaw played in Gallant but Malone got down well to deny him at his near post, before Shaw was then blocked as he was through on goal. The floodgates opened on the stroke of halftime when Dave Brown’s cross was met by Alkali Darboe who smashed it into the roof of the net.

The second half began and the hosts equalised on the 54th minute. A sublime ball was played into Lewis Ochoa by Remmel Clarke, it eventually reached Mullan who tucked it into the bottom corner from close range.

Leighton needed to get back in front to try and get out of the bottom two and were still creating chances as a Maxwell Ibeto cross to Darboe was punched away by Malone. Substitute Kerran Birch also had a chance to get Town back in the lead but when he found himself in a decent shooting position, he scuffed his shot and it was cleared in the end.

Despite this it was Chalfont who took the lead in the 65th minute when a long ball unlocked the Leighton defence and Mendy latched on to it with a delightful chip over Kirkwood.

Malone was part of the reason Leighton couldn’t get through, Darboe was through on goal again but Malone got out quickly to deny him.

Chalfont went further ahead on the 78th minute when Ochoa found himself in space and unselfishly squared it to substitute Alex Paine who couldn’t miss and duly slotted past Kirkwood.

Leighton didn’t give up and should have reduced their arrears to just one goal after a Lewis Mcbride free-kick; it reached James Hatch but his header was clawed away, it then reached Darboe but his shot was blocked as the linesman blew his whistle.

Leighton did get it back to 3-2 on the 89th minute as Ben Gallant crossed it into the net on the near side, whether he meant it or not; only he will know but it was a smart finish nonetheless.

Any chance of a late Leighton comeback was extinguished on the 90th minute as the Southern League Division One Central top-scorer Mendy chipped Kirkwood again for his second of the match and Chalfont’s fourth.

4-2 was the final scoreline but Leighton would’ve finished 21st regardless of today’s result as Hanwell beat Ware 1-0. Leighton didn’t play badly today but Chalfont were solid defensively and dangerous going forward. The lads put in a shift for Leighton and gave it 100% but whilst Leighton had to play three games this week, Chalfont hadn’t played since last Saturday, which had a telling effect on the game.

Report by

James D'Arcy