We arrived at Leiston having made the 2 hour 15 minute journey, the lads wondered the pitch, getting the journey out of the legs before we went into the changing rooms to prepare for what we knew would be a tough game.

Leiston U23's are a full time academy side, young, talented and very well drilled - Having secured a hard fought 3-2 victory at Carter's Park a few weeks earlier, we knew what we were about to face. The young side are quick to press, they work their forward and midfield rotations very well, creating pockets of space for deep runners to exploit.

We started the game poorly and it took just 5 minutes for Leiston to take the lead, their forward smashing past Simpson with their first attempt of the game.

It took us a further 10 or 15 minutes to gain our composure, get to grips with some intelligent movement and stop allowing them to pull us out of shape, once we mastered this we started to dominate the ball and control the game. Jordan Oldham was getting on the ball and breaking lines, as was Sam Carter and Harvey Thorne. We were moving the ball at pace and recycling the ball when we couldn't penetrate, we weren't attempting Hollywood passes and our ball retention was so much better than recent weeks.

Despite dominating the ball for the final 25 minutes of the first half, Leiston had done a good job of restricting us to a couple of half chances. They had dropped into a low block and looked like they were happy to try to sit on a 1-0 lead for the rest of the match, a risky tactic so early in the game.

We went in at half time 1-0 down but happy with what we were seeing.

We discussed a couple of opportunities at the break and went out full of optimism.

It wasn't long until the lads managed to grab the deserved equaliser, Harvey Thorne finding a pocket of space on the right side of the penalty area before firing in a dangerous cross that that was deflected into the net by the defender as he attempted to clear. 1-1 and game on.

Just a few minutes later and we took the lead. Same Carter finding himself in the right place at the right time, smashing the ball into the net from close range.

Leiston now came out of their low block as the scrambled for an equaliser, leaving more space in behind - Ryan Cook, Oskar Gadzia and Isaac Bassendine-Matthews all breaking through on the left side at times. Isaac managed to fire in a couple of inviting crosses but we failed to get on the end of either.

Kyle Compton had worked his socks off as a lone striker and was replaced by Jordan Keeble, who was making his 299th senior appearance for the club.

As the game progressed into the closing stages Leiston started to throw everything at trying to snatch an equaliser, our boys holding firm.

90+6 and the referee awarded Leiston a free-kick around a metre outside of the box, the 'injured' player laying outside of the area, nobody appealing for anything else, our wall being built - however, the referee's assistant called the referee over and informed him that she believed the foul to have taken place inside the penalty area. Bare in mind that the referee was right on top of play and she was 20m away. The referee changed his decision and awarded Leiston the penalty.

Leiston fired in the equaliser, we kicked off and the referee called time - heart-breaking as the lads had been tremendous and deserved the win.

The Leiston supporters were terrific and completely in agreement with our side that the penalty decision was very harsh but that's football. We could have taken control of our destiny had we scored more goals, at 2-1 there was always the chance of them finding an equaliser.

So many positives to take from the game, not only were there many fantastic individual performances, the patient build-up play and the pace at which we broke through the thirds was excellent and we must take these positives into next weeks home fixture against promotion-chasing Diss Town FC.

Final score 2-2.

END.