AFC Sudbury 1 Blues 3

Leiston looked to get back to winning ways on Tuesday night when they made the short trip down the Suffolk rivals AFC Sudbury writes Ollie Fairs. Glenn Driver made just one change to the team that suffered their first home defeat of the season on Saturday with Joe Francis making way for Patrick Brothers. The game got off to a very tight start with both teams having roughly an even share of the ball and the chances. After 10 minutes, however the game began to open up. Ollie Brown picked up the ball deep in his own half and made a lung-busting run all the way to the edge of Sudbury’s box unchallenged before sliding through Matt Blake who calmly slotted the ball across the keeper’s body and into the bottom left hand corner of the goal, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead after just 12 minutes. Leiston then began to control the game and did so for the rest of the first half. They played some very attractive football and created some good chances, including a penalty appeal that was hastily turned down by the referee and a Gareth Heath near post header from a corner that forced a great save out of the Sudbury keeper Marcus Garnham. The clear majority of attacking threat in the first half came from Leiston with Sudbury struggling to create any real chances of note. Leiston finished the first half very well but were not able to get another goal to double their lead going into the break, leaving the Blues one goal to the good at half time. Leiston looked to start the second half in the same manner as the first and they could not have wished for a better start. After playing a few sharp passes Leiston could open up the Sudbury defence within the first 72 seconds of the second half when Matt Blake teed up Gareth Heath who was in acres of space in the box allowing him to fire his shot into the Sudbury net and get that all elusive goal that the Blues were looking for. However, this goal seemed to wake up the Sudbury players as they looked a different team from the minute the second goal went in. They found themselves controlling the game and creating a few good chances, Rob Eagle and James Baker having the best of the opportunity’s after forcing Jacob Marsden to make two good saves on different occasions. While Sudbury looked a much improved team from the first half they still lacked that extra bit of quality in the final third and as the game progressed they were forced to throw more men forward to try and get back in the game leaving them vulnerable at the back. The Blues had struggled to put a run of passes together for a long time but when they finally did in the 77th minute it saw Patrick Brothers whipping a cross in to the back post which was placed into the bottom corner of the net by Sudbury’s number 6, James Baker, which seemed to secure the three points for Leiston. There was one final twist in the tale when a nothing ball was played forward from the Sudbury defence and saw Jake Hutchings loose his footing allowing Liam Wales the chance to run at Marsden one on one before he calmly placed his shot under the Leiston keeper to earn his team a consolation goal with just two minutes of stoppages left to play.

FT - AFC Sudbury 1 Blues 3

AFC Sudbury - Garnham, Tann, Wilkinson (Blackwell 16 mins), Williams, Henshaw, Baker, Bantick (Austin 50 mins), Clarke, Callander (Wales 73 mins), Parker, Eagle. Subs not used - Newman and Robinson.

Blues - Marsden, Brown, Dunbar, Ainsley, Jefford, Hutchings, Lawrence, Heath, Blake (Blades 86 mins), Finch (Francis 68 mins), Brothers (Pelling 85 mins).

Man of the Match - Gareth Heath

Attendance - 286