Intermediate Cup exit for Luffs in spite of good effort

SATURDAY INTERMEDIATE CUP THIRD ROUND LOUGHBOROUGH FC 1

OLD AYLESTONE 3 THE LUFFS bowed out in the third round of the County Cup on Saturday but not without a fight.

The league basement side might be looked upon as a soft touch these days but the current District Premier League

leaders Aylestone were just a bit taken back by the spirit of the Loughborough side.

Indeed it was the Loughborough side who were first to threaten after the early exchanges and striker Rida Koultima was inches away from a low cross with the visiting defence beaten. But in the first 10 minutes Aylestone showed why they are top the Leicester and District League Premier division with two breakaways and two goals.

The first saw Emerson Blackhamper squeeze the ball in from a very tight angle followed up quickly with a second from Alan Stafford with a close range effort at the back post.

Two down after 10 minutes, the Luffs were facing another heavy defeat but assistant manager Paul Izzard rallied his team and they showed a much better fighting spirit and it was no surprise when Rida Koultima squeezed the ball into the net at the back post and suddenly at 1-2 Aylestone were looking over their shoulder.

Aylestone came out in the second half knowing they had a job to do and the Loughborough keeper Brendon Holgate had to earn his corn. First he saved with his feet and saw the loose ball blinded over the top by Stafford. Aylestone won a free kick and shot past the post but The Luffs were showing good organisation and restricted their high flying visitors to long shots.

Keeper Holgate pushed one onto the bar and was immediately at full stretched to push the ball around the post but he couldn’t get to the next effort as Liam Taylor thumped the ball into the top corner to make it 3-1.

It was an encouraging sign that The Luffs held it together till the end to give a relatively reasonable scoreline but it was goodbye to a place in the quarter finals.

This Saturday The Luffs entertain Fleckney at The Drome with a 2pm kick off, the side that has recently taken over at the top over at the top of the Senior League Division One and the side that gave the Loughborough side a right drubbing at their pace a few weeks ago. A chance to see what progress the Luffs have made in the intermediate weeks.