Bedfordshire Premier Cup Final
Bell Close, Leighton Buzzard
Admission: £5.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 270
Match Rating: 3
Having spent last Saturday revisiting two grounds, I certainly wanted to visit a new ground today, which these days inevitably entails a fairly long day out for me. Not much was really appealing for me today, until I noticed this interesting looking fixture, which would have something of a competitive edge on it being a county cup final, and would also offer the opportunity for me to meet up with an old work colleague for a couple of drinks in town beforehand.
Bell Close is about a 20 minute walk from Leighton Buzzard train station, via the town centre, and the football ground is located amongst the town's sporting facilities. Visitors walk along a short lane from the main road, past 4 tennis courts and the clubhouse for the Leighton Buzzard Sports Association, before entering the football ground through a wooden turnstile block in one corner of the ground. Behind the goal closest to the entrance there are a few steps of uncovered terracing, and behind a path along the top is the brick clubhouse. To the other side of the clubhouse, there is a small covered area with a tea bar window, although this was not open today. There is a stand with four rows of seating inside straddling the halfway line, quite attractively decorated in red and white club colours, and behind the far goal, there are two steps to stand on covered by corrugated iron supported by scaffolding poles. There is just quite a narrow path of grass to stand on along the remaining length, with wooden fencing dividing the football ground from the cricket field of Leighton Buzzard Town Cricket Club - a game was also in play over there today. It's a pleasant ground all in all, with adequate facilities, a fair amount of character, nothing in the way of bland modern infrastructure, and with nice surroundings of trees, the cricket field and a church spire in the background. Somewhat surprisingly for a county cup final, no programme nor team sheet was issued for this game.
Leighton Town had a good season last season, finishing fourth in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division, their second season since relegation from the Southern League. With Luton Town also playing at St Albans City today for their designated first team fixture, it would be a youthful side who would take to the field here.
On yet another hot and sunny afternoon this summer - in the middle of a hot, dry spell which has lasted well over a month now, the pitch here was parched and hard but not too bad considering, with other clubs having to cancel their games due to their pitch being unsafe with cracks. Despite the hot conditions, this was quite an intriguing game to watch, with the Luton youngsters showing plenty of nice touches and inventive play, whilst Leighton were more limited in their technical ability but had more experience, and started well, but it was noticeable how they seemed to struggle with the hot conditions as the game wore on. It was Leighton who took the lead on 19 minutes with a lovely left footed shot from the edge of the area which beat the keeper's dive and nestled into the bottom right corner. And they liked good value for their lead as Luton barely threatened until the 38th minute, when a quick attack saw their striker through towards goal, eventually poking the ball past the onrushing keeper but just wide of the goal. But within a minute, the scores were level, Connor Tomlinson taking the ball towards the outer left corner of the penalty area and as the keeper found himself slightly in no man's land, he lobbed the ball over the keeper and into the far side of the net. And two minutes later, on 41 minutes, Luton took the lead. Following a dribble across the outside of the penalty area, the ball eventually spilled to Jonas Kalonda at the far edge of the penalty area, and he smashed the ball first time past the keeper and into the net. And indeed, Luton finished the half really strongly, with the home team struggling to deal with their silky skills. But 1-2 was how it remained as the referee blew for half time.
The second half was entertaining enough but with precious few goalscoring chances, and Leighton never really looked likely to grab an equaliser, the closest they came was deep into added on time, when a header from a corner went wide of the post. And so it was the Luton youngeters who would receive the winners medals and lift the trophy on the pitch shortly after the match ended - although I was unable to stay around to watch, so that I could get back to the train station in time for my booked train home. Credit to both teams for producing a reasonably entertaining game of football on a very hot afternoon.
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