Leighton Town 4

(Ryman League Div Two)

LEIGHTON TOWN put a large dent in Harlow Town's championship hopes with a crushing 4-1 victory at the Sportcentre on Saturday.>

Hawks are Sozzo-lled

Harlow Town 1

Leighton Town 4

(Ryman League Div Two)

LEIGHTON TOWN put a large dent in Harlow Town's championship hopes with a crushing 4-1 victory at the Sportcentre on Saturday.

Harlow stay in third place in the Ryman League second division with four games in hand over leaders Bedford Town but following this result there is now a nine-point gap between the two sides.

The Hawks had started brightly enough and enjoyed all the early play but fell behind in the 15th minute to John Sozzo's opportunist strike.

Even then an equaliser looked likely to arrive for the home side sooner rather than later as Tony Kelly twice went close as Harlow pressed hard before half-time.

Wayne Cort blasted home an equaliser three minutes into the restart but the rest of the second half was the Sozzo roadshow as the striker proved too hot to handle. He scored two more goals to complete a hat-trick and was brought down for a penalty, which Craig Johnstone converted.

Eddie McCluskey kept his side locked in the dressing room for an hour after the game for an "airing of views", but said: "Losing doesn't bother me, it's part of the game. If you had told me back in August that we would be at this stage of the season having only lost twice then I would have been happy.

"We lost 5-0 to Bedford Town earlier in the season and it put our feet back on the ground. We realised we had no divine right to win matches."

HARLOW TOWN: Turpin, Samuels, Nicholson, Crabb, Parkyn, Leggatt, Walker (sub: Pike, 78min), Kelly, Cort, Theodosiou, Smith. Not used: Claridge, Brotherton.

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