St Ives Town V Leiston
PitchingIn Southern League Premier Division Central-24.11.25
Following their 2-0 defeat to Redditch United only 48 hours earlier, Ives boss Ricky Marheineke will have been hoping for a strong reaction from his side, who came into Monday night’s clash with Leiston a point behind their visitors from Suffolk. Whilst there was a marked improvement in performance from Ives, a disastrous 15 minutes at the beginning of the second half saw Leiston score three decisive goals in the contest as the home side suffered their third consecutive league defeat.
Ives supporters will have been happy to see Ethan Creary’s name back on the team sheet, with the defender making his return to the side following an injury sustained in their home fixture against Needham Market earlier this month. Jahrel McKoy and Dan Efobi, who had featured for Ives against Redditch on Saturday afternoon were ruled out of the game as they were both scheduled to be involved in Cambridge United U18s Youth Fa Cup tie against Tiverton, which will now take place at Quattro-Tech Westwood Road on Saturday 29th of November.
Those who were present for Saturday’s defeat to Redditch will have no doubt been encouraged by the start their side made to proceedings in this contest, with the hosts looking a lot more energised from the off. Tyrone Baker had Ives’ best chance of the opening 15 minutes, with the forward managing to beat Leiston keeper Billy Johnson to the ball, before flashing his effort across the face of goal from a very tight angle.
The visitors also had their opportunities to nick an early lead, with winger Harvey Sayer making his presence felt on the right wing. Sayer put two dangerous early balls into the box, one which had to be tipped over the bar by Ollie Taylor and one that was met by the head of Ronnie Blois, with Leiston’s number nine directing his effort straight down the throat of the Ives keeper.
Despite the reaction from Leiston manager Chris Wigger’s side, Ives managed to weather the storm and have a strong finish to the half. The home side had a host of attempts at Johnson’s goal, with the best of them coming from the boot of Romari Forde, who forced a great stop from Johnson, who flew to his right to palm the effort away from goal.
Michael Richens, Ives’ top goal scorer so far this campaign was also close to opening the scoring, with the Ives skipper shifting the ball onto his favoured right foot and curling a shot that just wide of Johnson’s left hand post that had the Leiston keeper scrambling across his line to cover the danger.
It looked promising for the home side as referee Stuart Lathan brought the first half to a close, with Ricky Marheineke’s side looking much more threatening than they did on Saturday afternoon and feeling as though a break in the deadlock just after the break would put them in a great position for success.
Unfortunately for the hosts, they would not be able to take their first half momentum into the start of the second period as, unbeknownst to them, things were about to unravel in spectacular fashion.
The 51st minute saw Sayer, who had been causing real problems for Ives’ backline all evening, was played through down the right-hand channel and found himself one-on-one with Taylor, albeit from a wide angle with the Ives defenders looking to push him away from goal. The winger however managed to get himself in enough space to get a shot off and fire the ball through Taylor at the near post to give his side an early second half lead.
A mere three minutes later, things went from bad to worse for the home side as Adam Mills was found unmarked in the penalty area by Ben Fowkes, with Blues number 11 driving the ball into the roof of the net before Taylor could do anything about it to double his side’s advantage.
This ruthless spell from Wigger’s men was complete in the 63rd minute as Blois got on the score sheet, with the forward pouncing on Sayer’s parried effort to tap home from close range and put his side three to the good in what felt like a blink of an eye.
A shell-shocked Ives side were in need of some sort of response, with manager Marheineke looking to inject some energy into proceedings by making a quadruple change on 67 minutes which saw Aaron Smith, Alfie Shepherd, Archie Riordan and Jernade Meade enter the field, replacing Ethan Creary, Kellan Hickinson, Romari Forde and Jiah Medrano.
With all of Marheineke’s cards now on the table, there was a upturn in performance level from the home side which drew parallels from the quality they showed in the first half. Ives started to build some momentum and even managed to pull a goal back in the 73rd minute, with Richens rising well to get on the end of Shepherd’s corner and direct his header past Johnson.
However, despite a better finish to proceedings, the damage done in that ruthless passage of play by the visitors was too much for the home side to come back from in the end as referee Lathan brought the game to a close, with Ives suffering their third straight defeat in the space of seven days. Their next fixture sees Marheineke’s men travel to league newsboys Quorn in what looks to be another tough assignment.
