FA Trophy Beaconsfield Town 3 Leiston 1 Leiston failed to progress to the First Round Proper of the Buildbase FA Trophy as they went down to Buckinghamshire side Beaconsfield Town 3-1 at Holloways Park, writes Craig Cooper.

Stuart Boardley’s side were missing Rob Eagle and new signing George Keys (Cup tied), Matt Rutterford (suspended), Dominic Docherty and Patrick Brothers (injured) and captain Tom Bullard was unavailable, but they welcomed back Kyle Hammond and Jake Reed.

The hosts had their first chance in just the second minute, but Louis Stead fired over the crossbar.

Just two minutes later though, and Beaconsfield took the lead. A diagonal ball into the box was headed down and Charlie Losasso rifled the ball into Marcus Garnham’s bottom left hand corner giving the keeper no chance.

Matt Blake created a good chance for Leiston as he pulled the ball back from the byline to Jake Reed, but he shot just over. Kyle Hammond sent in a free kick that home keeper Michael Power-Simpson palmed away and the keeper expertly saved Noel Aitkens’ follow up. From the resultant corner, Joe Jefford headed just wide.

Beaconsfield doubled their advantage in the 27th minute. From a free kick, Garnham came out to clear the danger but he palmed the ball onto Jordan Ajanlekoko and was unfortunate to see the ball end up in the back of the net.

Leiston forced more corners while Garnham held on well to a long distance Losasso shot.

Two minutes into the second half, and Seb Dunbar’s effort went in via a deflection, but the linesman ruled it out for offside. Marvin Morgan couldn’t direct a header into the net when well placed for the home side, but Joe Jefford gave Leiston a lifeline in the 56th minute as he guided Byron Lawrence’s free kick home.

The Blues, urged on by noisy away support, now had a lifeline. Garnham blocked superbly from the lively Stead before with twenty minutes to go, Aitkens was sent off for a second yellow card after a melee in the middle of the pitch.

Beaconsfield were spurned on by this and Marvin Morgan guided home a header from a corner to kill off any Leiston fightback. Blake was thwarted by Power-Simpson in the home goal in the last minute of the game as Beaconsfield saw the game out.