Close fought match with Aylesbury

The ladies 2s remain in the promotion hunt with a 3-2 win away over Aylesbury. Leighton started hard, pushing forward and having the best of the possession. However, Aylesbury are not an easy team and within 10 minutes it had settled into end to end hockey. Leighton sent a lot of their play out wide, with wingbacks Chloe Alecock, Emily Smith and Gemma Jones all putting in hard shifts up and down the lines. Leighton made the first breakthough, with a stunning ball from within their own half from Katie Jackson played into the path of Siobhan Hennessy, who touched it home. Spurred on, Leighton continued to press hard, and five minutes later doubled their lead with another goal from Hennessy. Aylesbury rallied at this, and broke with a ball to their high players, who were able to slot it home to get one back. Leighton came back out hard for the first 20 of the second half, with shots being fired in by Sharon Avola, Lucie Webster, Clare Farrow and Kyrsty Hardy to no avail. It was Hennessy again who got the ball across the line to complete her hattrick, and give Leighton a cushion. It was one they needed as Aylesbury again broke through, and were able to claw one back. Defending the lead became the name of the game, with backs Andii Chandler and Suzy Mounter, alongside keeper Amber Kelly and sweeper Sally Retford being instrumental in maintaining the goal's cushion. A late scare came when Aylesbury put a short corner across the line, only for this to be disallowed for not leaving the D first. Leighton dug in, working as a team as ever to maintain the lead, and to continue to hold 2nd place with two games to go.