Report
Jermaine Hughes and Tommy Lee combined to take the Lilywhites with sniffing distance of relegation safety in this “six pointer” against fellow relegation battlers Leighton Town. A devastating combination of Hughes supplying the ball and Lee, scoring his first hat trick for the club, meant that the three points came to the home side early in the second half.
It was obvious that the Lilywhites were feeling the pressure during the opening exchanges as Leighton forced the game well into the home penalty area. As early as the 5th minute Town’s Beattie broke through the home defence and found himself with only ‘keeper Morgan to beat. Unhappily for him, ‘The Hand of God” had intervened and the referee had no option but to award a free kick against him. This early scare seemed to help the home team settle more to the task and began to look dangerous on the break.
The next best chance of the game fell, once more, to Beattie on 23 minutes but he managed to pull off an excellent close range shot. Throughout this time, Jermaine Hughes had been a constant worry to the Leighton defence. He chased every lost cause and gave the jitters to each defender in turn. On the 21st minute his work was rewarded when the Leighton defence stood waiting for the offside whistle. Hughes latched onto the through ball and raced for goal. Adams, in the Leighton goal raced out to cut the angle and Hughes shot. Adams saved but failed to hold the ball and Tommy Lee was on hand to bang home the loose ball.
Hughes continued to bring turmoil to the Leighton defence which just could not get a tag on him, he seemed like a gnat, gone by the time the tackle came in. On one occasion, however, he was not able to get away from Darren Gibb. Hughes had beaten him on the left flank. Gibbs went back for a second bite and was beaten again. Not to be outdone, Gibbs brought Hughes to the ground and trod on him. Mr Meilack had no option but to send Gibbs off. After treatment, Hughes carried on with his constant terrorising of the away defence. This paid off on 45 minutes when he picked up another through ball and crossed for Lee who was, once again, in the right place at the right time. His shot from 8 yards took out the back of the net.
The second half was quite a bitty affair which became very niggly and punctuated by free kicks. It was the Lilywhites, though, who sealed the game on the 54th minute with Tommy Lee’s third goal. The Lilywhtes had begun to break down the Leighton defence at will. Hughes ran on to yet another through ball and crossed almost from the byline. Tommy Lee, same place, the ball almost broke the net again. Not to be outdone with the assists, on 60 minutes Tommy Lee turned provider for Hughes. This time, after a cleared corner, Lee found himself five yards inside the penalty area. He crossed to Hughes, who’d taken the former’s position, and Hughes slammed home the ball.
The Lilywhites dropped concentration in defence for a short time, as it seemed they were going to score a hatful. They then reformed, consolidated and kept the points. A very sour note in the second half was Terry Scotchmer’s awful foul on a 17 year old Leighton player. I wont describe the foul but, suffice it to say, home players and officials were just as appalled as were Leighton Town. We can only apologise to them and hope their young player recovers well.