Leighton United 3 – 1 Toddington Rovers

After a quick start Leighton scored early on in the game, with a three pass move and Becky Langthorne assisting Niamh Timmons’ first goal. With Leighton scoring, Toddington fought back with a few quick attempts on goal that went very close to going in the net. With Toddington putting on the pressure, Kay Henton was strong at the back for Leighton, holding players off and making plenty of clearances. Eventually her hard work paid off, shooting from just inside her own half and getting Leighton’s second goal. Half way through the first half, Toddington made a substitution and brought on Charlie Bailey, who put Leighton under a lot of stress, taking shot after shot, boosting Toddington’s confidence.

In the second half, Toddington’s Charlie continued to pressure Leighton’s defence and came very close to scoring on more than one occasion. When Toddington received a free kick just outside the box, Charlie blasted it into the net to get Toddington a goal and making the score 2-1. A few minutes later, Leighton’s Hayley Fuller received the ball from a corner and with a fantastic first touch scored to make the final score 3-1.

AFC Kempston 2 – 9 Leighton United

Both teams looked very confident coming onto the pitch, but AFC Kempston’s girls were first to score with a quick goal from Victoria Caldwell, slotting it into the bottom corner. It seemed that before Kempston had finished celebrating, Leighton’s Niamh Timmons had run past two defenders to score an equaliser. Fighting for possession in the middle of the pitch, neither team seemed to get close to the opposing goal until Kempston’s Victoria dribbled the ball through two of Leighton’s defenders and scored again for her team making it 2-1. Being one goal behind, Leighton had to pick up the pace, and they did. A kick-in from Becky Langthorne went straight to Niamh Timmons, who chested it down and yet again equalised the score by smashing it past the helpless keeper.

A minute later Niamh laid it off to Alyss Lander’s feet, who pelted it at goal. The resulting shot hit the underside of the crossbar which fell behind the keeper into the net making the score 2-3. Just after this cracker of a goal the ball fell to Kempston’s Victoria again, who shot just wide of going in, skimming the post and making Leighton panic. A comforting moment came when Leighton’s Kay Henton shot from just outside Leighton’s box to hit the crossbar, flying. Late in the first half Kempston’s Summer Allynne took a chance that rebounded of the keeper and went into the air. A half-hearted clearance from Leighton’s Kay went past every player and rolled under Kempston’s keeper’s foot for a soft goal, making the score 2-4.
In the second half Kempston came out fighting, not letting any of Leighton’s girls past and taking a few long range shots to pressure Leighton Keeper Rachel Evans. As soon as Leighton’s Kay had the ball at her feet again, she hit a powerful shot that thundered into the back of the net. Kempston wouldn’t give up without a fight though and continued to take long range shots, each one getting closer to the goal with the post being struck twice. Leighton’s Alyss took advantage of a hurried Kempston goal kick to score her second of the game making the score 2-6. After Hayley Fuller came on for Leighton in the dying minutes, she scored a hat trick in quick succession thanks to Becky Langthorne’s relentless tackles and feeding the ball to the goal machine to end the game with a 9-2 win for Leighton.

Luton Ladies 4 – 2 AFC Kempston

The game got moving but neither team seemed to be able to break very quickly. A few minutes in the first goal came from Ladies via some great passing through the Kempston defence, finished off by Kerry Keyet. After their first goal, Luton continued to pressurise the Kempston defence until Kempston’s Summer Allynne broke through and equalised by slotting it into the bottom corner. As the game battled on, a second goal from Luton’s Kerry made the score 2-1. After another great passing movement by the Ladies, Christie Keyet scored Luton’s third goal and shortly after that Kerry went on to score her hat trick, making the score 4-1 going into half time.

The second half started well for Kempston as they put Luton under a lot of pressure and made advances on the goal. Even when Luton did shoot they were all stopped by goalkeeper Victoria Caldwell with some outstanding saves. Luton gave away a free kick close to their goal but unfortunately Summer’s shot was tipped over the crossbar. Wasting no time, Kempston took the corner they’d been given and when the ball reached Summer Allynne’s feet the outcome was certain when she hammered it towards the bottom corner making the score 4-2. For the remainder of the game both teams continued to shoot on site but just couldn’t finish their chances. If it hadn’t of been for the stand-in goalkeeper Victoria’s fantastic saves, Luton may well have emulated a similar score line to the previous match.

Big thanks to Matthew Langthorne for contributing the match reports. The 3rd round of futsal fixtures will be held at Cranfield University on Saturday, 12th Janaury, 9:30am-1:30pm.