Darley Dale 0 – 3 Leabrooks Panthers
A first clean sheet of the season and a solid performance by an energetic Leabrooks team sent the supporter’s home happy on a beautiful March morning at Cavendish Park.
Leabrooks were forced into a Goalkeeping change with Harvey Keely stepping on For Hleb Wain who had a virus and from the off Leabrooks pressed forward with energy and pace.
Yet again Leabrooks were denied on several occasions by an excellent Goalkeeping display by the opposition; Leabrooks thought it might be one of those afternoons after a number of goal mouth scrambles, close shots and saves amounted to nothing, on 18 minutes Darley Dale were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area and struck the post, but Leabrooks broke quickly and on 19 minutes Owen Spensley turned well and beat the keeper at his near post to send the Leabrooks faithful into relieved celebrations.
Half time, Darley Dale 1-0 Leabrooks Panthers.
Another Goal keeping change was made as Lewis Radford made his debut between the posts.
The game continued as one way traffic with Leabrooks pushing hard for a second, on 26 minutes Leabrooks were awarded a corner from the right and Joe Selby took it with his left foot, it was returned back to him by the defender on the front post and Selby struck it again, only for it to strike the same defender, but this time Selby made no mistake with his front post drive to take the game to a comfortable 2 – 0 score line.
Only 3 minutes later super sub Jack Stoppard received the ball just outside the area and instinctively took a touch and shot a superb strike past the stranded Darley Dale goalkeeper to the rapturous applause from the support as he hit his first ever goal for the Panthers.
With the encounter tied up and in the final few seconds of the game the ball bobbled out to Defender George Scarfe who hit a thunderous strike towards goal that could have been goal of the season, but it sailed just over the bar to everyone’s disappointment.
What an encouraging Team performance from the Panthers, who have been a little inconsistent since the new year, but seem to be back on track in recent weeks.
Full Time, Darley Dale 0 – 3 Leabrooks Panthers.
