Lowestoft Town 3 Blues 2

Leiston's Boxing Day fixture saw them face local rivals Lowestoft writes Ollie Fairs. The Blues made just one change from their last match, the 5-2 victory over Harlow Town, with Joe Marsden replacing the suspended Seb Dunbar. However, the result was a very disappointing one for Leiston who lost 3-2 on the day, goals from Matt Blake and Niko Muir not being enough to earn them any points.

The first half was very hard viewing for the Blues fans who made the short trip down to Crown Meadow with the home side playing the better football of the two sides and dominating the game for the vast majority of the first 45 minutes. Lowestoft were constantly testing the Leiston back four for the first 20 minutes and could easily have gone ahead if it were not for some good last ditch defending and some confident saves from Jacob Marsden. The home side did in fact take the lead after 25 minutes where there prolonged spell of pressure saw them win a corner. The corner was swung in to the near post where the Lowestoft number 5, Travis Cole, had managed to escape his marker before connecting well with his header to give the Trawlerboys the lead. Leiston only had one real chance in the first half, but when it did come they certainly made the most of it. The move was started by former Lowestoft player Joe Marsden when he picked up the ball on the right wing, made his way past his marker, and drilled a ball across the six yard box which was met by Niko Muir who tapped the ball home to put the teams on level terms once again. They were not level for long though and the home side were soon ahead again, their second goal coming from another corner. Similarly to the first, the ball was swung in to the box and was met this time by the Lowestoft captain Rossi Jarvis who leapt the highest and powered his header into the back of the net to give the home side a 2-1 lead which they would maintain for the remainder of the first half.

After an extremely underwhelming first half Leiston came out early for the second looking to improve on their first half display. Things seemed to be going perfectly for the Blues when they brought the scores level again, just 10 minutes into the second half. It came from a ball over the top that was chased down by Matt Blake who did well to hold off his defender before rounding the goalkeeper and passing the ball across the line to put Leiston in a strong position to go on and push for a goal that would see them take the lead for the first time in the game. The Blues continued to play well throughout the second half and put together some nice passing moves, which they were unable to do in the first, however they only tested the Lowestoft keeper on a few select occasions and even then he certainly did not cover himself in glory. It was not all Leiston though as the home side did still look dangerous going forward and forced a superb save out of Jacob Marsden when he had to go full stretch to stop a dangerous strike from the edge of the box. As the game neared its conclusion it was clear to see that one of the two sides would go on to score the winning goal, but it was near on impossible to predict who. Disappointingly, in the end it was the home team who scored the fifth and final goal of the game which won them the three points on the day. The ball was brought down the right wing before being zipped across the face of goal, allowing Shaun Bammant to fire the ball home in the 80th minute and put his team out of sight. Overall, a very disappointing result for the Blues which can be argued was a harsh result considering they were the better team in the second half, but the first half performance was what let them down in the end and played a big part in the Trawlerboys keeping all three points at Crown Meadow.

FT - Lowestoft Town 3 Blues 2

Lowestoft Town - Waite, Barker, Smith, Fisk, Cole (McAuley 65 mins), Rossi Jarvis, Hodd, Ryan Jarvis, Henderson (Forshaw 90 mins), Bammant, Blake-Tracy. Subs not used - Glover, Amisi Kamaneno and Jessup.

Blues - Jacob Marsden, Brown, Brothers (Pelling 82 mins), Ainsley, Jefford, Hutchings, Lawrence, Heath, Blake, Muir-Merchant, Joe Marsden (Cole 67 mins). Subs not used - Hastings, Lay-Fulcher and Potter.

Man of the Match - Jacob Marsden

Attendance - 725