Late penalty puts Leighton Town into FA Vase fourth round

Lewis Toomey fires home the winning penalty against Fakenham. Photo by Simon Gill.

Lee Bircham’s men had to produce a big second half performance to secure victory in front of a jubilant 410 at Bell Close, with Lewis Toomey’s late penalty the difference.

And the Leighton boss was delighted to have made progress as his side continued their impressive campaign.

He said: “I’m delighted. It’s the cup and at the end of the day the ultimate goal is to get through to the next round.

"The ‘straight to penalties’ element might make it exciting but it makes it very hard on the sidelines when your side’s in the ascendancy and you could do with the extra half-hour of extra-time.

"We had to go for it in the 90 minutes and fair play to all the boys as we weren’t at our best, especially in the first-half, but the whole squad came into play and we got into the next round.

"You know that with the players we’ve got we’ll create chances and sometimes we are so attack-minded it can put a lot of extra pressure on our defensive players, but we had to go for it today and it’s brilliant we turned it round.”

Fakenham took the lead on 11 minutes, making the most of lackadaisical defending to earn a penalty. Ashley Jarvis tucked it away emphatically, finding the bottom left corner with ease.

After this, the Reds kept pushing for a goal and the travelling goalkeeper Tom Coombe produced a number of saves in the first half including one where he somehow put Leon Lobjoit’s effort on to the bar before athletically flapping away the loose bouncing ball.

In the second period, Coombe made a good block from a Luke Pyman drive, Reece Robins unable to keep the rebound down.

Another Pyman surge got Town back in the game. On 68 minutes, he ran to the byline on the right, luring out the keeper. Off balance, somehow he managed to prod the ball back across and Archie McClelland turned it home for his seventh goal in his last eight games.

In the final five, what had plagued Leighton in the first half, would be the saviour in the second – a penalty. Toomey went down after a tired Fakenham challenge. He then brushed himself down to smash home the winner, sending the clubhouse into raptures.

Town now have a two-week break before Arlesey come to Bell Close.