Match Report:
Leicester Road FC v West Bridgford FC- Saturday 24th September 2016 – (HOME) – Buildbase FA Vase - 2nd Qualifying Round

Leicester Road were looking to reach the First Round proper of the Vase for the first time as they entertained EMCL high flyers West Bridgford.

The starting eleven was the one that had started against Littleton last week with a ‘new’ face on the bench as Amarvir Sandhu returned from his loan spell at Barwell FC.

Leicester Road took the initiative from the start and had hit the post twice within the first 3 minutes. A Jake Holt effort came back off the inside of the posts into the keepers arms and then a Matt Stenson effort cannoned off the other post. Off the resulting corner Josh Smith’s effort flashed narrowly wide. It looked only a matter of time before the deadlock was broken and the first goal came after Greg Downes had blocked an attempted clearance and Matty Stenson coolly volleyed home the rebound after 19 minutes. The hosts continued to make the running with crisp imaginative football and they went further ahead when Josh Unsworth headed a corner down and over the keeper into the far corner to make it 2-0. It was all one way traffic at this point and it took until the 31st minute for the visitors to have their first strike on goal with a snapshot going narrowly over. Matty Stenson was close to increasing the lead on 39 but his shot again came back off the post to the grateful keeper. With a couple of minutes to half time, skipper Greg Downes went down and received a lengthy spell of treatment and the visitors took advantage of Leicester Road’s ten men when they volleyed home at the far post.
H/T LRFC 2-1 West Bridgford FC

The visitors were spurred on by the goal on the stroke of half time and they came out for the second half in determined fashion. Within 6 minutes of the restart they had fashioned an equaliser as a shot from inside of the box crashed down off the underside of the bar and over the line to tie things up at 2-2. Things were very much nip and tuck at this stage but it was Leicester Road who restored the lead when after good build up play from Jake Holt and Theo Brown, Joe Lyne smashed in a close range shot. On the hour Amarvir Sandhu made his return replacing Tom McGlinchey. Leicester Road continued to press and they came close on a couple of occasions after Theo Brown’s initial effort had come close, Jake Holt’s follow up was well parried by the keeper. With twenty minutes to go it looked as though Leicester Road had wrapped up the game after Sandhu ran at the visitors defence and despite seeming to lose the ball, he regained possession to slip the ball home. Leicester Road continued to press and Joe Lyne set up Theo Brown to shoot narrowly over the bar. It was destined to be a tense 12 minutes though as West Bridgford hit back to reduce the deficit and Alex Kent was introduced into the game to try and make things safe. In the end the game finished with the hosts through to the First Round for the first time in their short history.

F/T LRFC 4 – 3 West Bridgford FC

Attendance 75