Leighton Bounce Back Brilliantly

The last time Leighton and Aylesbury met, a freak deflection cost Leighton the spoils of the game and after a humiliating defeat to Milton Keynes in their last game, Leighton were looking for a strong performance this weekend.
The game started at a slow pace, but as the game developed so did the home-side's pace and conviction. With each build up in play Leighton came closer to scoring. The defensive centres of Dan Edwards and Matt Franklin controlled the ball around the back distributing to the Buzzards wide defenders of Dave Fry and Tony Puttock, both of which were able send the ball down their respective lines to start each of Leighton's attacks. A drive by Fry resulted in him laying the ball of to Jack Gorton at the top of the D. After beating his man, Gorton struck the ball past the Aylesbury keeper and gave Leighton their opening goal. As the half progressed Leighton continued to apply pressure the visiting side, until an Aylesbury forward was able to beat Nick Marshall in the middle of the park and create a one-on-one opportunity with Leighton Keeper, Dan Metcalfe. As the forward entered the D he was met by Metcalfe, and the resulting collision earned Metcalfe a yellow and Aylesbury a penalty stroke. With Leighton a player down, Player of the Match Dave Fry stepped up between the post, with his first duty being to face the penalty stroke. As fry dived to his right he was able to get the slightest of touches on the ball and send it onto the post and keep Leighton in the lead. For the remainder of the half the Buzzards had to dig deep and keep the away team out of the game.
Back to full strength, Leighton started the second half strongly. Leighton's defence continued to grow from strength to strength and with the wind literally in his sails, Franklin began to pull the Aylesbury side apart with his aerial onslaught. On of these aerial attacks found Tommi Lakins free and after beating his man, was able to slip the ball to Josh Gale for him to knock the ball over the line; doubling Leighton's lead. More possession play continued to give Leighton multiple opportunities with both Josh Farnfield and Benji Robinson very nearly being rewarded for their hard work in the midfield with goals. Strong battling within the Leighton D by Laurence Leech kept the Aylesbury forwards at bay and Metclafe's determination for a clean-sheet saw him make a number of saves to deny Aylesbury any hope of getting on the scoresheet. Leighton's third goal came from a series of inter-linking play between the defence and midfield allowing Lakins to play the ball across the face of the goal, finding Tom Billington open to rattle the backboard. Leighton's only short corner of the game came in the dying minutes of the half. The ball was injected to Lakins at the top of the D, and with a quick pass to his left, Lakins found Marshall. As the Aylesbury keeper slid out to him, Marshall flicked the ball over the keeper high into the net to finalise Leighton's victory.
Next week Leighton travel to Tring and will look to build on this strong performance.