Men's 2XI v Reading 3XI

Leighton faced a team pushing for promotion for the second week on the bounce and having taken a draw from the first round, Leighton were hopeful to get back to winning ways and take all three points against Reading. Starting off with the faithful Jim Galloway in goal and the familiar back line of Tim Bellamy, David Wavish, Joseph Giltrow, David Canty and Oliver Parren the Leighton Buzzard defence started strong keeping Reading from posing any major threat. A few short corners from Reading, all amounting to nothing, was about the highlight of the first 20 minutes of the game. The toughest attack everyone faced was then from the skies as hail rained from above. Shortly after the hail, Leighton mid fielders of Joshua Wavish, Stuart Retford, Fraser Retford and Alex Kostopoulos managed to break away and feed the ball up to the Reading D. Unable to stop the ball with their stick, a Reading defender took it upon themselves to stop after kicking the ball only for the sharp minded David Jackson to slot an easy ball into the back of the net. At 1 - 0 up the home sides confidence grew which shortly after led to Leighton's second. Another well worked passage of play let Dave Canty into the D who's defected shot (or was that a pass?) flew into the top of the net after the defender flicked it into his own goal. Going two goals down seemed to be the catalyst for Reading who turned the game on it's head with three goals in quick succession. First half finished with the Buzzards 2-3 down.

Leighton came out for the second half with determination to claw the game back and while forwards Joshua Gale and Ashley Barnett gave their all, they couldn't take advantage of the few chances they were presented. As the game progressed, Reading seemed to read the game better and tore through the Leighton midfield with uncomfortable ease putting constant pressure on the Leighton defence. Front man David Jackson (Mom) even found himself putting in a mammoth effort to help in the back line. However, Reading twice more found the back of the Leighton net with no reply ending the game at 2-5.

A disappointing end for Leighton who need to pick up some points from their next few games to avoid another end of season relegation scramble.