Leatherhead 4 Crystal Palace 1
Leatherhead rounded off their eight-match pre-season campaign with an emphatic 4-1
win against a Crystal Palace Under 21 side in a fast-flowing match at Fetcham Grove
on Tuesday.
Goals from Alfie Huckle, Deondre Date, Marco Haigh and George Hedley gave
Tanners an unassailable advantage before Sebastian Williams scored a late
consolation for the young Eagles.
Leatherhead started brightly and took the lead after 13 minutes. Niren Butler stole into
the visitors’ box and headed down for Huckle to plant the ball firmly past Palace
goalkeeper Billy Eastwood.
Matt Everitt almost doubled the hosts’ advantage four minutes later, heading wide
from a tight angle.
Tanners dominated possession in the opening half and came close again on 42
minutes, with Anuar Ceesay forcing a smart save from Eastwood after a another quick
break in the visitors’ half.
Leatherhead failed to take full advantage from a corner just before half-time.
Eastwood made a good block before saving comfortably from Kwesi Ntim’s follow
up effort.
Tanners withstood a strong counter-attacking spell from the visitors in the opening ten
minutes of the second half, with goalkeeper Sonny Wheeler having to make a fine
save to deny Palace front-man Hindolo Mustapha.
But any concerns of an Eagles comeback were eased on 56 minutes when Kelvin
Massango set up Date to slide the ball into the corner of the net for Leatherhead’s
second.
Haigh set up and finished for Tanners’ third goal on 65 minutes. The young forward,
signed over the summer from South Park, was cut down in the box by a Palace
defender with the ball at his feet, giving the referee no option other than to blow for a
penalty.
With regular penalty-taker Tom Kavanagh suspended, Haigh stepped up for the spot-
kick and calmly slotted the ball past the keeper.
Leatherhead almost scored again four minutes later, but a goal-bound effort was
cleared off the line by Palace defender Jake Grante.
Tanners didn’t have to wait long before scoring a decisive fourth. Palace failed to
clear a probing Leatherhead corner on 72 minutes and the ball landed invitingly for
Hedley to fire home from the edge of the box.
Tanners boss Ian Selley made a number of changes to his side during the course of the
second half, including the introduction of three players from Leatherhead’s Under 18
squad for the final twenty minutes.
Palace pulled a goal back on 80 minutes. Mustapha broke clear of his marker at the
half-way line before setting up Williams for a cool finish in front of goal.
Trey Masikini almost nabbed a fifth goal for Tanners in the ninetieth minute, firing
just wide of the post from a tight angle.
This performance will give Leatherhead a huge amount of confidence as they prepare
to start the new season away to Southall on Saturday.
Southall continue to ground-share at Burnham and kick off at the 1878 Stadium is at 3.00pm