Luton Town Ladies 1st XI v Leighton Buzzard 1st XI

Luton Town Ladies 1st XI’s chances of securing a much needed victory against local rivals Leighton Buzzard this Saturday were severely hampered by a combination of illness, school holidays and a clash of fixtures meaning they went into this game without fielding a goalkeeper. Despite Luton having the majority of play in the first half and creating some excellent goal scoring opportunities they found themselves 2-0 down at half time. Luton came out for the second half demonstrating that they were confident that they could get back into the game and after a long ball in from the midfield sliced the defence and left the Buzzard goalkeeper stranded Rachel Shadbolt only had to push the ball into the net to pull Luton back to within a goal of the opposition. 2-1. This seemed to spur Luton on and the increased intensity of their attack was rewarded with a penalty corner after the ball struck a defenders foot in the circle. A decent strike from Claire Shaw and a beautiful deflection from Rochelle Lewsey gave Luton the goal they needed to level the match. With just 10 minutes remaining it was looking good for Luton, but sadly for them this second goal seemed to wake up the visitors. Luton came under pressure causing unfortunate errors which meant that the Leighton Buzzard team were able to score 2 goals in quick succession, the first from open play and the second from a penalty corner. 4-2 full time.