LEIGHTON TOWN
Toddington Rovers U7
Leighton Town U7
ON a day so cold and wet you expected Toddington to feature on the shipping forecast, a few very committed and very brave six and seven-year- olds travelled from Leighton Buzzard to Toddington for a football match.

Wearing a variety of hats, scarves and gloves the Under 7s played their hearts out against a very useful Rovers side.
After losing an unwell Ben early on, Max, Lauren, Dan, Luca and Max tackled, passed and ran without complaint and were a credit to their club.

Toddington scored two early goals and by the end of the first quarter were 3-0 up. However, Town were coming into it well with Dan having a terrific long range shot just go the wrong side of the post.

Max and Luca worked hard but were well marshalled by the Rovers defence. At the other end Dan was now in goal and made two excellent saves. Toddington were always dangerous and went into the second half 4-0 ahead.

Luca pulled one back for Leighton early in the second half with a trademark run and shot.
Max and Dan shared the MoM award.

Barton Rovers Youth 13 6
Leighton Town U13 3
IN wet conditions once again, playing in the third round of the county cup against a good strong Barton Rovers team, the Leighton lads were up against the odds, but despite the result Leighton played some good attractive football and showing why they have been winning in some comfort in recent weeks.

The first fifteen minutes saw Leighton dominate play and they should have been 2-0 or 3-0 up but from brilliant saves by the Barton keeper.
But then the tide turned and Barton started to dominate, first going 2-0 up and then scoring twice more in quick succession to make it 4-0 at half time.

A couple of well-chosen words from the Gaffer and Steve and Simon seemed to have a dramatic effect as Leighton were a different team in the second half.

They produced three goals to really come back into the game, two coming from Tartaglia and one from Gallagher.

That made it very interesting at 4-3 but then Leighton conceded a soft penalty was awarded and Barton who took full advantage, stretching back into a 5-3 lead and then scoring again before the final whistle.

Team: Thomas, Gillings, Johnson, Spencer, Churchill, Tartaglia, Gallagher, Hodges, Till, Hill, Newman, Quigley, Fairclough, Edwins.
Well done lads, and hard luck.

LEIGHTON UNITED
Dunstable AFC U8
Leighton United U8
UNITED kicked off and attacked with Oliver Culley making a good run towards the Dunstable goal.

His shot was deflected wide leading to a Leighton corner. Edward Hibbitt delivered a nice corner, but it was intercepted by Dunstable who quickly broke away.

Leighton attacked again with Kian Christie making a good pass to James Head, whose shot was forced wide winning Leighton another corner kick.
Again Dunstable intercepted the corner and cleared.
Chris Field broke away from the mass of players and made a good run forward.

James Head then raced down the right wing, wrong footing two Dunstable players before scoring a fantastic goal to put Leighton back in the hunt.

The start of the second half saw Zoe Potts and Field make a good joint attack on the Dunstable goal, only to be thwarted by some great defending. Kailan Farrugia made a great pass to Potts who again was stopped by some great defending.

Still Leighton kept up the attack, this time Alex Sibley made a great run down the right, but Dunstable's defence held firm.
Finally, Leighton's persistence paid off when Liam Lindgren made a great run forward and placed the ball firmly in the back of the net.
Dunstable broke forward and would have scored again but for some great defending by Lenny Loader.

Celtic Youth
Leighton United U16 2
THIS league cup fixture was the fourth difficult game back to back for United.

United started brightly enough taking the game to Division 2 Celtic, and had a couple of good chances to score.
Celtic took the lead after a rare venture into United's half, which was totally against the run of play.

United hit back well with a great move out of defence down the left side which saw Minney run at the defence passing a great ball to Roberts whose strike/lob beat the keeper to get back on level terms.
Still United dominated the half, but could not add to their tally.

10 minutes into the second half Celtic began to take control of the game failure to close players down and standing off them saw United fall behind 4-1.

This mad 15 minutes marred an otherwise good performance from the team.
MoM Goodyear struck a well-taken goal after a persistent run through a crowd of players, but United could not convert other chances presented to them.

Scoreline did not reflect the performance and proved to be an early Christmas gift for Celtic.

Perrin, Butler, Holden, Lynch, Dyer, Ratcliffe, Lafferty, Price, Cheshire, and Nichols were the other squad members.

WOODSIDE
Woodside Rovers U11 6
Linslade Greenleas Inter U11 3
DESPITE the atrocious weather, Woodies put on one of their best football displays. The strong wind forced both teams into keeping the ball on the floor and this suited Woodside.

Rovers took the lead when Michael Davies was bundled over in the box, Michael smashing home the resulting penalty.

The Rovers defence was solid in the first half with Peter Ulyett, Harvey Jones and Lloyd Milliken tackling strongly and distributing the ball well.

Conor Drosihn was having a good game before injury unfortunately forced him off.
The lead was soon doubled with a Michael piledriver from the edge of the box. Inter were also playing well and pulled a goal back but this just drove the Woodies forward again and Michael completed his hat-trick, this time with a tap-in.

The Rovers midfield of Alex Batty, Max Coleman, Cat Connew, Kerry-Louise O'Connor and Stuart Matthews passed the ball superbly and the link-up play with Michael was fantastic.
The second half was closely contested with Inter having some good spells.

But the Rovers extended their lead when Max fired in after yet another good move.

Goals came regularly at both ends but Woodside were always in control. Michael bagged his fourth of the game before Mark Roberts, who was having his usual excellent game, was also forced to leave the pitch through injury. Cat took over between the sticks.

Kerry-Louise rounded off the scoring with her first goal of the season. Good performances from Cat, Alex, Max and Harvey were just eclipsed by the fantastic non-stop performance of Michael who was MoM.

Woodside Rovers U15 1
Scot Youth 2
ROVERS went into this match with Scot Youth looking to improve on their excellent performance last week.

On a boggy pitch, Rovers knew it would be tough but started with an attacking line up of Robertson, Jell, Stiles, Jones and Edmunds in midfield with O'Donoghue as the lone striker.

Rovers were up for it from the off and had some excellent chances. All their hard work paid off when they took the lead following a long throw from O'Hara which was flicked on well by O'Donoghue, with Edmunds was there to finish well under pressure.

But all Rovers' efforts were undone when Youth equalised with the last kick of the half.

Rovers knew that Youth would come back strongly in the second half and were proven right when their opponents took the lead from a corner 10 minutes into the second half.
However, Rovers battled their way back into the game and were the better of the two sides.

Sadly they couldn't take their chances and failed to equalise.
It was a brilliant effort by the team especially the defense of Callaghan, Simons, O'Hara and Arscott-Smith who kept Rovers in the game. MoM: Jones for his tireless running in the center of the park.

SOUTHCOTT OWLS
Watling Saints U14 10
Southcott Owls U13 1
THE first half saw Southcott defend fantastically. MoM Howard, playing on his debut, had to play in goal and made save after save and with the solid defence of Brown, Thomas, Tift, Quinn and Clegg, kept the score at 0-0 for a good third of the first half.

A brilliant header from Clegg was a pick of excellent last gasp challenges.

It was only time until the Under 14s side scored, but no fault of the Owls.

Southcott were 3-0 down when Waterhouse held the ball up, taking two players out of the game and laying the ball off to Foulger who placed the ball bottom right.

Trailing 4-1 at half-time, Southcott were on top for much of the second period, coming close with Waterhouse and Hearn.

The midfield of captain Moffat, Bramston, Gillings, Foulger, Messum, Murray and Hearn ran and ran, but the cold got the better of some of the lads and the game eventually slipped from their grip.

The score does not tell the true story – there were some great performances should make the team of Southcott feel proud of themselves.

LEIGHTON
CORINTHIANS
Dovery Down U7
Leighton Corinthians U7
Corinthians played their first match at Dovery Down on a narrow pitch that was difficult for front men Calum Elliot and Albert Reed to deal with.

At the other end Reece Pinder and goalkeeper Joshua Lowe were kept very busy but dealt with it very well indeed, mopping up everything Dovery were throwing at them.

Battling Billy Lawrence notched it up a gear and was beginning to get stuck in, but the ball would just not sit right for Corinthians to unload an opener.

A nice bounce inside Corinthians' half was latched onto by Down and with incredible pace for a six year old, it screamed over everyone's head and landed in the back of the net, a superb effort acknowledged by all.

Dillon Walker and Hayden Jones came on, but it was not to be Corinthians' day, although they did deserve something from the game with some great determination by all, and excellent defending from MoM Reece Pinder.
Team: Joshua Lowe, MoM Reece Pinder, Dillon Walker, Billy Lawrence, Albert Reed, Calum Elliot, Hayden Jones.

LINSLADE GREENLEAS
Woodside Rovers U11 6
Linslade Greenleas Inter U11 3
WOODSIDE came out on top in a nine-goal thriller in a match played in a tremendous spirit on a bitterly cold December morning.

Rovers dominated the early stages and were soon two goals to the good and it could have been even worse but for George Higginson in goal for Greenleas and the defensive trio of Robert Harding, Oliver Hill and William Kemp.

Just before the break Kyle Gallagher linked up well with Albie Hall to set up in form Wesley Russell who made no mistake from close range.
Unfortunately for Inter, Rovers scored again shortly after to make it 3-1 at half time.

Inter started the second half very well and were unlucky not to reduce the deficit when a Matt Leedon shot was blocked on the line.
Callum Hack and Brandon Nicholson also came close and Albie Hall was starting to control play from midfield.

Just as Greenleas were having their best spell of the match Woodside broke from the halfway line to increase their lead.

Though now trailing 4-1, Inter's heads never dropped and they pulled a goal back when Harry Cosby scored after a goalmouth scramble.

With time running out Inter pushed more and more players forward which in the end proved costly as Woodside drove forward again to make it 5-2.

Greenleas made it 5-3 when goal machine Albie Hall scored his 16th goal of the season but the home side still had time to score one more to make the final score 6-3. Dillamores Furnishers MoM Robert Harding.