Men’s 2XI (0) v Newbury & Thatcham 3XI (2)

This weekend saw Leighton Buzzard men’s 2XI travel to Newbury & Thatcham hoping to put last week’s defeat behind them. Leighton took a youthful looking side with a number of players from the fledglings stepping up. Unfortunately for Leighton Newbury started strongly and they soon found themselves being pegged back. Once Leighton began to get a foothold in the game they began to play some attractive hockey. Unfortunately a green card for Marc Scott meant Leighton were down to 10 men for a short period of time. Their situation was made worse when Tim Bellamy got injured, despite the injury he battled on for the remainder of the game whilst being covered in blood in a scene reminiscent of a horror movie. Despite some very solid defensive work Leighton went in at half time 1-0 down.

The second half began with Leighton buoyed by the half time team talk and set about finding an equaliser. Leighton played some great with every player giving 100%. Ash Barnett was unlucky not to find an equaliser and moment later they nearly got the equaliser they deserved. Marc Scott played a defence splitting ball which found Man of the Match Josh Gale who had ran his heart out all game. Unfortunately Newbury players swarmed round him and he was unable to convert. Tiredness crept in and Leighton found themselves dropping deeper and deeper trying to repel wave after wave of Newbury attacks. Unfortunately their resolve was broken and Newbury scored their second goal of the game. Leighton nearly found themselves a further goal behind but with Jim Galloway beaten Marc Scott stopped the aerial effort from going into the goal. The game ended with Leighton losing 2-0. Next week Leighton host Marlow in a must win game to help pull away from the relegation zone.