Leighton's Trophy hopes are ended at Walthamstow
Leighton Town exited the FA Trophy following a 5-3 defeat at Walthamstow on Saturday.
The Reds were a goal down at the break before a thrilling second-half firstly saw the hosts double their lead before Godlove Oppong pulled one back.
Walthamstow then made it 3-1 before Oppong scored his second on 67 minutes, the hosts then netting a fourth before Sydney Ibie pulled one back in stoppage time ahead of Walthamstow then getting another before the final whistle.
And Leighton boss Paul Reed was disappointed to see his side exit the competition.
He said: “If you concede five goals you’re not going to win games of football.
"The timing of the goals was awful – we hit the post on 44 minutes then 30 seconds later they go in front, then we concede right after half-time and it killed us.
"I think physically we struggled all over the park, but Walthamstow do what they do -they’re direct, they run, they work hard and are very good at transition but we were a bit naive and conceded goals I wouldn’t expect.
"So not a good day at the office but league football returns at the weekend and that’s more of a target than the FA Trophy but ultimately we didn’t think our defensive performance reflected anything that we’re about.”
Attention now turns back to the league for Leighton as they aim to continue their perfect start in the SPL Division One Central that has seen them win three games out of three so far.
They go to Leverstock Green on Saturday, who have won two, drawn two and lost two of their league games so far.
Reed said: “We’ve just got to get back to doing what we do well. We hadn’t conceded a goal in open play in four games and then shipped five in one match, but this 95 minutes doesn’t make you a bad team overnight, so we’ll go again, dust ourselves off and head back to training on Tuesday.”