Leighton Buzzard Men’s 1st Team – Aylesbury Men’s 2nd Team

Leighton Buzzard's Mens 1st Team endured a roller coaster of a match against local rivals Aylesbury on Saturday. From the first whistle, Leighton were put under some significant pressure by the visitors, with some last ditch defending by Tim Bellamy and Jack Gorton keeping the scores level. Leighton came more into the game and grew in confidence as the half progressed and took the lead following an error by the Aylesbury defender who gifted Matt Rust the ball five yards out who finished in style. Leighton hung onto the lead for the remainder of the half and went into half time buoyed by some of their approach play in the latter stages.

At the start of the second half, Aylesbury came out strongly and pressed Leighton into making uncharacteristic mistakes. It was only a matter of time until Aylesbury equalised and they duly struck following a goalmouth scrabble. What followed was some frantic and desperate defending, including Will Giltrow getting his body in the way of a goal-bound strike. However the pressure finally told with Aylesbury scoring two well worked and clinical goals to put them 3-1 up.

The scores stayed the same until the last five minutes when inspired by Man of the Match Tristan Hardy Leighton pulled a goal back. Following this Aylesbury became very nervous in defence and allowed Hardy too much time in the D to fire a wonderful strike into the bottom corner to bring the sides and double his tally. Having scored two goals in three minutes, Leighton went for broke and pressed Aylesbury into making errors in their own half. The pressure finally told as Ben Smith scored with the last hit of the game following a goal mouth scrabble to earn Leighton their first win of the season. Leighton will look to take confidence from this remarkable and breathless comeback into the remainder of the season.