St Ives make a comeback to thrash Leighton

With numerous injuries it was a much changed side for Leighton tonight and a limited substitution bench. St Ives kicked off the match and even with a depleted team Leighton seemed to be holding their own, keeping up with play, making the first half very even between the two.

Leightons' first chance came when Shane Bush took a shot at goal in the 7th minute but was denied by the oppositions defence. Again Leighton were making all the right noises to be the first to score and in the 13th minute Jack Downes crossed the ball to find Craig Maisiri in the box but it was just too far for his legs to reach.

Next up was Enzo Silvestri and Jake Bewley to have a chance of scoring, with some good play from Silvestri he found Bewley but he only managed to boot the ball wide. The pitch although deemed playable was extremely boggy in the middle and started to churn up making the players unsteady on their feet.

35 minutes in saw Matt Griggs make a spectacular save, diving to his left to deny St Ives a goal. Leighton started to struggle when it came to getting their corners and free kicks past the first man and it was clear they were in need of a break.

Kristian Stephens was not up to form and was making some silly mistakes, but luckily nothing become of them. However Dom Marsala pulled out all the stops during the game and made a superb run down the left hand side to find Sean Bishop only for his shot to be completely off target.

Straight into the second half and Leighton were awarded a corner, Bewley managed to find Ben Gallant only for the keeper to gather the ball from his shot. Silvestri had a tentative shot in the 59th minute and was the last chance Leighton had, with it all going down hill from there.

With Leighton having uncountable shots at goal and not succeed it was St Ives that stepped up to the plate, with Avelino Vieira making a break through the Leighton defence only for the ball to end up in the back of the net courtesy of Grant Fryer. St Ives' second came only 4 minutes later when Matt Waters hit the ball with extreme force, finding the bottom right hand corner of the net, leaving Griggs bewildered.

Substituting late Leighton swapped Silvestri for Gareth Chendlik, in the hope he would pull back a goal. Bishop played extremely strongly throughout the second half facing head on tackles and pressuring the opposition unfortunately the rest of the team weren't on his wave length and his efforts went to waste.

The only card of the game was received by St Ives Barney McLaughlin for time wasting over a goal kick, but this didn't effect their mood as St Ives third and final goal came in the 86th minute when Vieira slotted the ball home to finish off the game fair and square.

Leightons next game is on Saturday 22nd February away to Rugby Town FC- kick off 3pm.

By Hannah Sellman

Team lineup- Griggs, Downes, Bewley, Stephens, Fryer, Bishop, Marsala, Bush, Gallant, Silvestri, Maisiri

Subs- Bather, Chendlik, Quinn

Attendance- 111