Leighton Town facing a 'must win' game

Goalmouth action during Leighton Town's 1-0 home defeat to New Salamis last weekend. Picture by Andrew Parker

Paul Bonham believes Leighton Town’s home clash with Crawley Green on Saturday is a “must win” game for his side.

Town were made to pay for chances missed as they suffered a 1-0 defeat to fellow high-flyers New Salamis in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division at the weekend.

The defeat - Leighton’s first loss in the league since Bonham took charge - has left things very much out of their hands at the top of the table.

Unbeaten Risborough Rangers moved a point clear of them at the summit and have five games in hand while New Salamis are now just a point behind Leighton from four matches left.

Saturday’s clash with bottom side Crawley Green looks to be a good chance to bounce back.

And Bonham said: “On paper and if you look at the league table, you’d say the game with Crawley Green is a great chance to bounce back.

“But they have just got a new manager in and he’s got new players in so how it looks on paper isn’t how it’s going to be.

“But we are looking for a reaction. It’s the first time we have lost a league game since I have been there and now we have to bounce back.

“We have a couple of training sessions this week to get ourselves ready and I think Saturday is now a bigger game than last weekend.

“It’s a must-win game for us. There’s no ifs or buts about it.”

Bonham, meanwhile, admitted his team were punished for missing too many opportunities after they were beaten at Bell Close at the weekend.

George Lutaaya hit the only goal of the game early in the second half and Bonham said: “I had seen them a couple of times already this season and they have some very good players so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy and we were up against one of the top teams in the division.

“But we really should have been out of sight in the first half.

“I thought we were fantastic and we had four or five really good opportunities but if you don’t take them then there is always that risk that you are going to get punished.

“I think we conceded 45 seconds into the second half so everything that was said in the dressing-room went out of the window because the whole game switched.

“We had more opportunities and we hit the bar twice but we let them take hold of the game a little bit and we got punished for not taking our chances.”