Tonbridge Angels 2 Leiston 1

Match 44/17/1494 - Tuesday, 17th October 2017 - Bostik Premier

Tonbridge Angels (0) 2 Akrofi 25, Elder 52
Leiston (1) 1 Ainsley 3
Attendance: 279

Entrance: £6 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 38/3,034

If the football purist needs a fixture then Tonbridge v Leiston appears to be safe bet. Last year’s best game of the season has been duplicated with another high quality encounter with, on this occasion, Tonbridge bouncing back from an early setback to inflict on the Suffolk side their first defeat of the season.

The disappointment of Hendon was put to bed with a performance of high energy and no shortage of quality to move Tonbridge to the edge of the play-off spots in the Bostik Premier.

It started so badly as Patrick Brothers forced an early corner from which Joe Marsden’s excellent delivery was met at the near post by a glancing header from Joe Ainsley to open the scoring after just three minutes.

For a few minutes, Leiston showed precisely why they headed the league on arrival with some neat football all played on Longmead’s carpet of a pitch.

Tonbridge started to get a foothold in the game with a shot from Alex Akrofi that was deflected wide and a speculative effort from Craig Stone that cleared the bar.

But, after 25 minutes, the Angels were level. Joe Turner sent a free kick to the far post towards the head of Nathan Elder whose well directed effort beat the goalkeeper but was denied by a post only for the rebound to be met by the ever-sharp Akrofi to head home.

Tonbridge largely dominated the first half with Turner seeing a couple of efforts miss the target and Sonny Miles directing a header straight at Marcus Garnham, although Jonny Henly also needed to be at his best to deny Matt Blake.

A great turn from Akrofi deserved better than a shot over but, seven minutes into the second half, sublime link play between Turner and Jack Parter led to the full back standing up a perfect cross for Elder to bullet a header into the bottom corner.

Liam Smith, 17-years-old and growing with confidence with every game, fired in a shot from 20 yards that Garnham saved low to his left whilst Leiston responded with Stone making a desperate clearance and the normally sure-shot Blake firing wide.

The game was captivating with Miles crashing a header against the bar while, at the other end, Blake misfired on two more occasions.

As the game entered into a generous six minutes of added time, Tonbridge might have benefitted from their visitor's desperation to throw bodies forward in search of an equaliser with Andre McCollin failing to make the most of counter attacks when the Suffolk side found themselves very short at the back.

After the game, a conversation with a couple of Leiston supporters who commented that was the worst they had played this season. If that is the case then Billericay may well have a challenger but I also think it does Tonbridge a disservice.

Pictures courtesy of David Couldridge