The Southern League Premier Division Central - Tuesday 5th April 2022, 7:45 p.m. kick-off
Leiston 1 (1) Bromsgrove Sporting 0 (0) at Victory Road

Bromsgrove Sporting made the long journey across to Suffolk on a Tuesday evening and at least the game went ahead this time after two previous postponements. Unfortunately Will Shorrock went over on his ankle during the warm-up and missed out on his 99th appearance for the Rouslers and had to be replaced by Dom Perkins. Otherwise the starting line-up was the same as for the Redditch match last Saturday.

The away side controlled the proceedings for the first 15 minutes but as with so many matches this season failed to convert dominance into goals despite getting into good positions during that period.

Callum Ebanks, Nathan Hayward, Jamie Molyneux, Michael McGrath and Perkins all had chances that went over or were easily saved by Sam Donkin in the home goal.

However when Leiston did decide to get into the match, they meant it. On 12 minutes, a William Davies shot was cleared off the line by Michael McGrath then four minutes later then same player failed to get enough power behind his shot and Ollie Taylor between the sticks for Sporting, easily gathered.

Then on 21 minutes another Leiston assault resulted in a brilliant triple save by Ollie Taylor to keep his team from going behind.

Two minutes after that, a Sporting free-kick deep into the Leiston half was cleared by the home defence resulting in a swift counter-attack that led to Luke Dugmore fouling Davies just inside the box. However Taylor was the hero again, diving right for the penalty and the ball ballooning off his glove and over the bar for a corner.

The Blues though were still looking for the lead and Davies forced Taylor into another good save with 33 minutes gone. But the breakthrough came on the 39th minute when another counter-attack saw Finlay Barnes with space on the right; he crossed to George Quantrell who fired into the top left-hand corner of Taylor's net.

Sporting though continued to press and Josh Quaynor was unlucky to see his excellent free-kick tipped over the bar in the last minute of the first half.

After the interval, Leiston seemed to be content to defend their narrow lead and certainly made life difficult for Sporting to penetrate their back line, though Joe Willis and Molyneux had decent efforts early on. To bolster their attacking options, manager Gavin Hurren bought on Jon Letford and Matt Barnes-Homer to accompany Ebanks up front but the home defence remained solid to the end of the match with the only decent chance falling to Barnes-Homer with 10 minutes to go.

So after a decent run of three games, Sporting again fall to a 1-0 defeat (the fifth on the trot) but remain just outside the relegation zone.

Leiston: Sam Donkin, Joe Marsden, Seb Dunbar (Capt), Baris Altintop, Jake Hutchings, Oluwasijuola Odelusi, Finlay Barnes (Brendan Ocran 90+4 mins), George Quantrell, William Davies, Oliver Saunders, Adam Mills.
Subs unused: Adam Bailey-Dennis, Iuri Fernandes, Oliver Godbold, Sonny Wright
Goal: George Quantrell (39 mins)
Yellows: Baris Altintop (45+3 mins), Adam Mills (84 mins)

Sporting: Ollie Taylor, Josh Dugmore, Josh Quaynor, Nathan Hayward, Michael McGrath, Joel Kettle (Capt), Joe Willis, Tom Taylor (Toby Raison 90+2 mins), Jamie Molyneux (Jon Letford 65 mins), Callum Ebanks, Dom Perkins (Matt Barnes-Homer 55 mins).
Subs unused: Adam Marusiak, Will Shorrock
Yellows: Callum Ebanks (42 mins), Joel Kettle (40 mins)

Referee: Mr M Robertson-Tant (Colchester)
Assistants Mr R Baker, Mr L Dawson
Crowd: 162
Weather: Dry, cool.

Reporter's MoM: Ollie Taylor
Sporting MoM (voted by fans on Twitter): Ollie Taylor

Report: Phil Baker

Stats:
Leiston Sporting
Shots on target 9 4
Shots off target 1 6
Free kicks 11 8
Offsides 2 5
Penalties 1 0
Corners 4 3
Yellows 2 2
Goals 1 0