Kirton Town had another away match this Saturday ,making the short trip to old leake.Jamie Hall returned in goal from injury, and shared half the match with young Joe Gilbert, Lewis Dunworth returned to the squad, and with Callum McDonald away ,Richard Ford was again the heart of the defence with Kurt west and niall Larkin either side ,midfield was marc neall,reece west,ben Harris ,with dean fisher on one wing and Ashley Davis on the other, James Hardy partnered Declan Sands in attack. Lewis Dunworth, Raddack and Joe Gilbert made up the bench for Kirton.
The game started of briskly Kirton looked dominant in midfield old leake looked dangerous down the wings, Kirton who playing with 3 at the back were looking exposed in the first few attacks with the forwards of leake finding space out wide but as soon as they tried to cut in they were shut out with one defender or another,Kirtons goalkeeper Jamie was called into action on one of these attacks diving smartly to his left and smothering the ball at the second attempt after their forward found some space.25 mins had gone before Kirton took the lead, Richard Ford picked the ball up just outside of his own box ,and floated a lovely diagonal pass onto the edge of the Leake box, were Ashley Davis met the ball with a brilliant looping header into the far corner of the goal ,brilliant pass ,brilliant header 0-1 to Kirton ,soon after Ben Harris was booked for Kirton ,very good tackle that won the ball, but think it was the follow through that he was booked for leaving a leake player laid out on the grass, leake had a couple of chances to equalise in the remaining first half but they didn’t come to anything ,so half time finished with Kirton 0-1 up.
Kirton changed keepers at half time bringing Joe Gilbert into the action; he was the unlucky one as he had the wind and rain in his face for this half. Both teams had chances in the second half to score Old Leake going the closest with the wind at their backs trying shots from a long way out that 2 went very close, luckily for Kirton they went over the bar too, Declan sands and James hardy were always a threat for Kirton and both went close to scoring as the half ticked away, Joe Gilbert was brought into action midway through when he turned a Old Leake shot over the bar for a corner, then easily catching the ball from the resulting kick. Ashley Davis made way for Raddack on 65 min who had had a very good game, soon after Lewis Dunworth came on for Reece West who himself had played very well. Then on 80 mins James Hardy picked the ball up from a bad goal kick that went straight to him , beat two players inside the box and hit a great shot to the keepers left and into the net to put Kirton 0-2 up. Marc Neall was booked soon after for what the ref said was kicking the ball away at a Old Leake free kick, and with only 3 or 4 mins to go Old Leake did score, a good move down the left and a dangerous ball into the box was headed into the net beyond the helpless keeper, it made for a couple of tense final minutes but luckily Kirton held on for all three points and another well deserved away win.
