Leiston are back in league action at Victory Road this afternoon for the visit of Met Police in the Bostik League, writes Craig Cooper.

The Blues were defeated for the first time this season in the Velocity League Cup First Round away to Maldon & Tiptree on Tuesday evening on penalties. After two cup matches on the trot, manager Glenn Driver is looking to forward to getting back to the bread and butter of league action this afternoon. “Met Police will be a tough game, but I feel at home we are more than capable of pitting our wits against anyone in the league,” he said.

“We are currently playing some excellent football, but we need to carry this over 90 minutes.”

Driver was manager of Leiston in the 2005/2006 season, and came back to the club in 2015 to manage the reserves and under 18 team.

He knows that after Leiston’s fine start to last season, there’s a long way to go.

“I’m not looking further ahead than the next game, I made that mistake last season and it cost us,” he said.

“We will take each game as it comes and do our very best to compete to the best of our ability.”

On Wednesday night, Driver stepped into the under-18 dug out to help out Matt Murphy in Neil Cole’s absence.

And he was impressed with the youngsters.

He said, “I was very pleased to be part of the youth team Wednesday night (Leiston beat Mildenhall Town 1-0 in the FA Youth Cup) to help Matt and it was enjoyable.

“The kids played some lovely stuff and the future looks bright. I believe it’s important for myself to be part of what’s happening at both youth and reserve level. I’m desperate to build a football club and I strongly believe we are on the right track.”

The reserves make the long trip to fourth from bottom Downham Town this afternoon.

Meanwhile another Bostik Premier side, Needham Market, entertain Enfield Town this afternoon at Bloomfields.

Richard Wilkins side had a fine FA Cup win over Chesham last weekend but have only picked up two league victories so far this season against Folkestone Invicta and Thurrock.

With their big FA Cup game against Dartford on the horizon next Saturday, Wilkins will want a good performance today and on Tuesday at Harlow.

I don’t think we could have got a much tougher draw in the FA Cup than getting Dartford,” Wilkins commented.