Magic of the cup is alive for Leighton

Dave Murphy, Alfie Osborne and Joe Fitzgerald all played key roles in Leighton Town's FA Cup success at Harefield United

Leighton Town will get their Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division season under way this weekend with a spring in their step after their exploits in the Emirates FA Cup.

Leighton claimed a fine 2-1 win at league rivals Harefield United on Saturday to book themselves a place in the first qualifying round where they will host Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division side Mildenhall Town next midweek.

Before that, however, they get their league campaign started on Saturday with a trip to Baldock Town.

Ashton Campbell scored one and set up the winner in the highly impressive win at the weekend.

Campbell’s pace caught the home side cold in just the second minute as he beat two defenders before finding the bottom corner.

The second goal came from a well-worked free-kick as Ross Adams played in Campbell down the left and his cross was met by new signing Aaron Jewell who smashed home with his first touch in a Leighton shirt after coming on as a second-half substitute.

Harefield pulled a goal back late in the second half but the Leighton goal was never under any real pressure for long spells.

The hosts had their captain sent-off for a second bookable offence in injury-time before Richard Pacquette also saw red for an alleged stamp on Leighton goalkeeper Brad Kirkwood.

“We set up with a purposely defensive shape to manage the threat of their three attacking players, who have been banging in goals for fun during pre-season.

“So to see the lads see this plan out and to keep their threats of scoring down to what we did was very pleasing for us to see.

“Harefield are always strong at home and have a good team with a good manager, so to go there and get the win in a big FA Cup game was great for everyone at the club

“On behalf of the players and myself, we want to thank the 100-odd Leighton supporters who made the trip over to be there for us.

“It’s great to see so many of them coming back out to football and we hope a lot more start getting out to non-League football as a whole.”

Leighton, meanwhile, confirmed the news last week that chairman Alan Penman had stepped down.

Due to the impact of the Coronavirus Alan has been forced to spend more time on his business, making it difficult for him to support the club in the way he wishes to.

Vice-Chairman Steve Harris is taking up the position of acting chairman as the club seeks to appoint a new chairman as soon as possible.