Leighton Buzzard Mens 1st v Newbury & Thatcham 2nd

Leighton Buzzard travelled to Newbury & Thatcham this week with a much changed squad.

Leighton's lack of cohesion showed as early on Newbury took advantage of some poor defending and scored a few early goals. Leighton started to build into the game with wing backs Oly Parren and Matt Franklin doing well under pressure to link the defence to the attack, however Newbury hit a fourth to deflate Leighton. The half ended with Leighton in control winning a succession of penalty corners but they failed to take the chances and at half time it was 4-0 to the home side.

The second half was a lot more even with Leighton having built themselves into the game. But Newbury's quality was clear as they added to their lead. Finally Leighton struck a long ball that looked to be going straight off the back line, and it would, had it not been chased down by David Fry who just kept the ball in play, Newbury scrambled into their D to defend but a fantastic supporting run from Man of the Match Mark Stephenson got its reward giving Fry the option to cross early Stephenson's shot deflected up off of a defending stick which saw it loop over the goalkeepers head who could only help push it into the top of the net. The game opened up and Leighton pushed on to try and reduce the deficit but we're caught on the break to make the score 6-1 to Newbury. It got worse for Leighton as Gordon Browne had to spend 5 mins in the sin bin but were back up to their full 11 before the end of the match all the while still pushing for a second goal which never came.

At full time Leighton reflected on a 'just pathetic' start in a game more evenly matched than the score would have suggested.

Final score LBHC 1s 1 Newbury & Thatcham 2s 6

Written by David Fry