Leighton Buzzard Mens 1st v Sonning Mens 3rd

With the end of the season looming Leighton need to take as many points as possible, out of the nine available, to avoid the dreaded relegation.

Saturday saw Leighton travel to mid table Sonning third team, in the first of their final three games. A tense team talk before the first whistle showed the gravity of the situation at hand. After winning the toss the Buzzards started the half brightly and within thirty seconds Leighton were on the score sheet through a Mark Stephenson smash from the top of the D. Unable to keep up with Leighton's pace and tenacity Sonning began to fall apart and it wasn't long before some slick passing around the D enabled Tommy Lakins to reverse hit the ball over the outstretched Sonning keeper and double the away side's lead. With only 10 minutes gone in the half Leighton added another to their tally with a set piece straight from the training ground. The hit, five yards outside the D, was played back to Jack Gorton who, with pin point accuracy, threaded the ball through a crowd of players for David Fry to deflect the ball into the goal. Now firmly in the driving seat, league strugglers Leighton continued to show their class and could have further increased their lead with Nick Marshall, Tristan Hardy and Ben Smith all forcing saves from the busy Sonning Keeper. 'Man of the Match' Sam Gale caused no end of trouble for the home teams defence with his powerful dribbling and accurate passing as the half drew to a close.

As with the first half the Buzzards continued to push for more goals, with their best chance coming through a Gale pass finding Fry unmarked and only the keeper to beat. Unfortunately for the yellows the Sonning keeper showed great composure to dispose of this Leighton threat at goal. A shaky five minutes allowed the home side back into the game but Leighton's solid defence of Gordon Browne and Will Giltrow saw that nothing came from these chances. Jacob Brading in the Leighton goal fiercely fought for his clean sheet and was there to spring into action on the rare occasions that Sonning broke through the Leighton defensive wall. As the game began to close Leighton halfs Matt Franklin and Oli Parren pushed high and won a number of short corners. Unfortunately for the travellers they were not able to capitalise on these as the final whistle blew.
A well earned three points now see's Leighton one place clear of relegation and needing only one point from a potential six. If the Buzzards continue to show this level of class a nine point sweep is definitely on the cards.

Final Score LBHC 1s 3 Sonning 3s 0

Written by Nick Marshall