FOUR points in a week has made it a very good return to Evo-Stik League Division One Central form for Leighton Town.
After a more than two-week break from action, Craig Wells’ men returned to action with a hard-fought 1-1 draw at home to Royston Town last Tuesday, and then picked up their first win in nine by beating Thatcham Town 3-1 at Bell Close on Saturday.
Those four points have lifted Town to a much better looking 14th place in the table ahead of a difficult run of fixtures.
Typically, having gone more than a fortnight without a game, the fixtures now come thick and fast for Town, with a tough trip to high-flying Guildford City this Saturday, followed by the visit of Burnham next Tuesday – both sides currently in the top five.
Returning striker Ben Gallant marked his return to the side by scoring in the 1-1 draw against Royston last week, and was at it again on Saturday as Town saw off a Thatcham side struggling at the foot of the table for their first home victory of the season.
Leighton got off to the perfect start and opened the scoring in just the third minute as Aiden Denton’s strike was parried by Beames in the visitors’ goal and Gallant reacted quickly to tap home from a couple of yards.
After that opener the game developed into something of a midfield battle with neither side really creating any decent goal scoring opportunities.
Leighton put together a decent four-man move on the half hour mark, but Andre Maltay’s cross was just too deep to present any real problems for the Thatcham defence.
A couple of minutes later and the visitors broke quickly, but Everiss put his cross a fraction too far in front of his colleague and the ball flew harmlessly out for a goal kick.
Leighton continued to pass the ball around very well, with Jerry Nash prominent and Ross Hanley starting to show his true form.
But they suffered a setback at the beginning of the second half when Thatcham scored a 48th minute equaliser with a clever goal by Flegg.
Receiving the ball just outside the penalty area, he played a 1-2 with a colleague before chipping a superb shot over Haydn Dodge and into the far side of the net.
Two minutes after this both sides were reduced to 10 men when Denton and Taplin were dismissed for contesting the direction of a throw-in.
However, Town were back in front on the hour mark when a Thatcham player could not get a clean header to a through ball and Maltay – up field supporting the attack – was quickly onto the loose ball and fired in a fierce low angled shot which beat Beames at his near post to make it 2-1.
And they made the points safe in the last 10 minutes when Craig Masiri scored his first senior goal and Town’s third after shrugging off the attentions of a defender to get to a loose ball first and fire past the keeper.
To their credit Thatcham never gave up and forced Dodge into an excellent save two minutes later, diving low to his left to maintain Town’s two-goal lead.
But Leighton saw the game out without any further threats and secured the win they deserved.
The test now will be whether or not they can repeat their level of performance against two very good sides in the week ahead.
Boss Wells said he was more pleased with Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw than Saturday’s 3-1 victory, but hopes it will be the basis of a good unbeaten run for his side.
“Guildford score lots of goals, but they also concede a few, so it will be a huge test,” he said. “But on our day we can go down there and get something.”