Royston Town 2 Leiston 5
Leiston displayed a ruthless touch in front of goal to seal an impressive win away at Royston Town tonight.
Goals from Patrick Brothers, Christy Finch (penalty), Seb Dunbar, Jake Reed and substitute Matt Blake made it two wins out of two for the Suffolk side at the start of this season.
There were two goals inside the first 10 minutes, and four inside the first half-hour, as the two sides traded blows on a warm evening at Garden Walk.
Brothers bagged the opener for Leiston on seven minutes, showing good perseverance after his initial shot was charged down. Winger Brothers pounced on the loose ball and drilled home low into the far corner of the net from eight yards out.
Brothers was close to celebrating a second goal shortly afterwards, as his cross-cum-shot so nearly sneaked under the bar. Home keeper, Will Appleyard, was able to get his fingers to the ball at full stretch as it scraped the bar and drifted over for a corner.
However, Royston were level within three minutes of Brothers’ opener, James Potton steering home from Adam Murray’s header, and that prompted a spell of pressure from the hosts,
Murray headed wide of the far post for the hosts, as did Brothers at the other end, but it was the Crows who took the lead on 20 minutes. Marcus Garnham did well to keep out an angled drive by Rohdell Gordon, only for Murray to plant the rebound into the net.
The visitors were hanging on at times, but they were gifted a chance to equalise in the 27th minute when Finch was upended just inside the box by Gus Scott-Morriss, with referee Jack Bloxman pointing to the spot.
And Finch made no mistake with a super-cool penalty, to make it 2-2.
Leiston nearly took the lead, on the stroke of half-time, but Reed could not direct his shot beyond Appleyard from close range.
But Glenn Driver’s men did take the lead, just four minutes into the second half, when Dunbar burst past full-back Scott-Morriss down the left and smashed home a terrific shot. That was a classy finish from the left-back.
And some deadly finishing by Reed, who made the most of a static defence, effectively wrapped up the points on 69 minutes, with substitute Blake adding a fifth in the last minute of injury-time.
LEISTON: Garnham, Knights, Dunbar, Aitkens (sub Ramadan, 52), Jefford, Bullard, Docherty, Henderson, Reed, Finch (sub Blake, 79), Brothers. Unused subs: Cheetham, Lay-Fulcher.
Attendance: 226
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