THE Blues head to Needham Market on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon to play their first local derby of the season in the Southern League Central Premier (3pm kick off), writes Craig Cooper.

An encouraging 2-0 win at home to Redditch United at the weekend saw the Blues win their first game of the season and move up to 11th in the league table. Meanwhile, Needham had a resounding 3-0 win at Bromsgrove Sporting on Saturday and currently sit two points better off in the table than Leiston in eighth.

PREVIOUSLY AT BLOOMFIELDS

LEISTON lost 5-0 on their last visit to Needham Market in February 2024.

They have, though, had some good wins against the Marketmen at Bloomfields especially since gaining promotion to Step 4 and then Step 3.

In the Eastern Counties League on Saturday 1st November, 2003, the Blues won 6-1. Goals from Glen Driver (2), Gavin Jennings, Blake Saker, Craig Taylor and Chris Wright secured a good win. D. Phillips scored Needham’s goal.

Two years later, on Tuesday 8th November, 2005, the Blues went down 2-1. Alex Selby scored for Leiston while Simon Head and Lee Norfolk (Leiston's current coach) were on target for Needham in front of 227 people.

Leiston lost 2-1 the following year, with Stewart Roach on target, while Needham won 3-0 on Saturday 27th October, 2007.

In March 2009, Needham Market beat Leiston 1-0 in front of 216 spectators. Leiston then won just five of their last 14 league games to finish seventh, after reaching the First Round of the FA Cup four months earlier.

Danny Cunningham and Lee McGlone scored as the Blues won 2-1 on 23rd March 2010. Craig Parker, another ex-Blue, was on target for Needham. It meant that the Eastern Counties Premier Division went down to a three-horse race that campaign, with Needham Market eventually winning the league, with Leiston in third, with 82 points, six behind Needham Market and five behind CRC.

Arguably the Blues finest win in recent years at Needham came on Boxing Day, 2011, when Leiston won 5-0 in the Isthmian League Division One North, with all the goals coming in the second half. Danny Smy (2), Rhys Henry, Gareth Heath and Luke Hammond were the scorers, in front of a crowd of 431.

Since that win, Leiston didn’t lose at Bloomfields for nearly eight years (winning twice and drawing twice), with Needham beating Leiston 3-0 in August 2019 on August Bank Holiday Monday. The last time Leiston won at Needham was a 1-0 win, thanks to a 90th-minute goal from Adam Mills, in April 2023.

THE MARKETMEN

NEEDHAM Market were formed in 1919, and are currently managed by Tom Rothery, who was assistant to Kevin Horlock, the previous Needham boss.

They gained promotion to the Eastern Counties League in 1996, with Leiston joining them in 2001. They won the Suffolk Senior Cup in 1990 and 2005, and were Suffolk & Ipswich Senior Division Champions in 1996.

Being runners-up in the Eastern Counties First Division in 2005 enabled the side to get promoted to the Premier Division, before they won the league in 2010 and went into the Isthmian League.

They then played in Isthmian Division One North for five years, winning the division in 2015, and joined the Leiston in the Isthmian Premier Division.

Needham won the 2023/2024 Southern League Central Premier but came 21st last season in National League North and were relegated.

Before last season, they won the last four Suffolk Premier Cups in a row, beating Leiston in one of these finals at Colchester United, in May 2022.

COMING UP FOR THE BLUES

LEISTON head to North London to face Cheshunt on Saturday in FA Cup First Round Qualifying action (3pm kick off).

Not withstanding FA Cup replays, Leiston then visit Lowestoft Town in the first round of the Suffolk Premier Cup on Tuesday 2nd September before hosting Quorn on Saturday 6th September. Three days later, the Blues are in Hertfordshire as they take on Bishop’s Stortford while they are at home to Harborough Town (Sat 20th Sep) and St Ives Town (Tuesday 23rd Sep).

MATCH INFORMATION
Needham Market v Leiston
Pitching In Southern League Central Premier
Monday, August 25, 3pm
Bloomfields, Quinton Road, Needham Market, Ipswich, IP6 8DA
Tel: 01449 721000

Admission Prices: Adults £15, Concessions £10, 12-16 year olds £5

Game 5/42