MATCH REPORT: KINGS LANGLEY 0:3 LEIGHTON TOWN

Kings Langley’s eight game unbeaten start to the League season was brought to a shuddering halt by Leighton Town, who scored two goals in as many minutes to effectively seal the home side’s fate.

With midfielder Sam Murphy still on the road to recovery, the news that defender Matt Hall’s ankle injury sustained against Bedford will rule him out for two months was a hard blow to take. Keeper Juliusz Pazio will be unavailable for three weeks for family reasons, all adding to pressure on a compact but small squad.

Kings started brightly enough when Isaac Pedro hit a post after five minutes, but incident was few and far between in the first half hour, during which a Seb Simpson long shot was just past the post and Lorenzo Johnson replied with an effort pushed round the upright by ex-Kings favourite Xavi Comas. But the game was to change irrevocably minutes later when Alex Tokarczyk punched away a corner and the ball was lashed home through a crowded box by Dean Brennan. Almost immediately, a good move down the right ended with defender Luke Pyman finishing in style and Kings never really recovered.

A feature of this Langley side has been their resilience to fight back when falling behind, but this time the expected comeback failed to materialise as the thirteen-goal spearhead of Rene Howe and Louie Collier was effectively muzzled and the defence looked vulnerable to Town’s breakaways. The introduction of Cheyce Grant saw some improvement as he single-handedly entered into a contest with keeper Xavi Comas, but the former Kings custodian was equal to the challenge to deny him three times, punching, fingertipping and holding three powerful efforts from range in the last ten minutes, before a third goal on the break in added time by Albie Hall rubbed salt into the wound.
So a disappointing day at the office for Kings, with Leighton taking full advantage to pull off a somewhat unexpected result. But all unbeaten runs must come to an end and tomorrow we prepare to build a new one!

Roy Mitchard