By Rod Ellis
Leatherhead 3 Littlehampton Town 0
Leatherhead produced a powerful second half display to beat visitors Littlehampton Town 3-0 at Fetcham Grove on Saturday.
There was little to separate the two sides in a tense opening 45 minutes. But Tanners dominated possession for much of the second half, scoring three times without reply.
Goals from Jacob Breckon, Lukas Franzen-Jones and Mark Waters gave the hosts an unassailable advantage, taking them to the top of the league table on goal difference with maximum points from their opening three games.
Both sides made a tentative start with neither goalkeeper severely tested in the opening exchanges. Franzen-Jones produced the first shot on target for Tanners on 20 minutes but Golds keeper Billy Collings got down well to gather the ball safely.
Leatherhead gradually turned up the tempo as Collings was forced to palm away a shot from Tanners skipper Kane Fitzgerald before dealing with a wide angled effort from Kareem Akinnibi.
Leatherhead missed an opportunity to take the lead on the half hour mark. Breckon and Fitzgerald worked together to move the ball forward to Akinnibi, but after rounding the Golds’ keeper the Tanners forward momentarily hesitated before firing wide.
Akinnibi and Franzen-Jones set up further chances for each other before half-time, but neither player could get on the end of two tempting deliveries into the visitors’ box.
Leatherhead took the lead a minute into the second half. The ball was played into the Golds’ penalty area and dropped invitingly for an unmarked Breckon to stab home from twelve yards out.
Tanners continued to press forward and scored a second goal on 53 minutes. Akinnibi and Franzen-Jones combined well, with Akinnibi beating his marker down the right before picking out Franzen-Jones with a pinpoint cross to the far post for an emphatic close range finish.
Collings was kept busy for the next ten minutes denying further efforts from Leatherhead’s Louie Paget, Waters and Akinnibi before Tanners struck a decisive third goal on 67 minutes.
Once again Akinnibi was the provider, taking the ball to the edge of the visitors’ six yard box before intelligently laying it off to Waters behind him to fire home from twelve yards.
With the game all but lost, Littlehampton threw players forward in a wave of attacks. Over a ten minute spell, Leatherhead keeper Sonny Wheeler made a fine save to deny Marshall Ball before Golds striker Matthew Storm fired wide and Joshua Short forced another good block from the Tanners custodian.
Littlehampton player-manager George Gaskin went closest for the visitors on 82 minutes when his long range effort crashed against the Tanners crossbar.
But Leatherhead resumed their assault on the visitors’ goal in the closing minutes. Collings did well to turn behind a shot from Fitzgerald before a close range effort from Ty Butler struck the foot of the visitors’ post.
Tanners will look to build on this performance when they face local rivals Kingstonian at Raynes Park on Monday. Kick off at Grand Drive is at 3.00pm.
Leatherhead: Sonny Wheeler, Alfie Huckle (Sam De St Croix 71), Niran Butler, Cameron Black, Mark Waters, Lukas Franzen-Jones (Nathan Hogan 85), Kane Fitzgerald, Kelvin Massango, Louie Paget (Ross Stepney 80), Kareem Akinnibi, Jacob Breckon (Ty Butler 77)
Littlehampton Town: Billy Collings, Luis-Tijan Sparks (George Gaskin 59), Samuel Pidgeon, Owen Spicer, Louis Pittock (David Herbert 45), Nicolas D’Arienzo, Evan Harris (Matthew Storm 59), Marshall Ball, Zion McLeod, Joshua Short, Marcel Powell
