It’s A Long Way To Leiston This Weekend!

by Peter Scherer

Following our home defeat against Coalville Town, Mickleover will hoping to bounce back on Saturday when they visit Leiston FC in Suffolk.

Having rested both Mason Warren and Elliott Walker onto the bench last Tuesday, both will hopefully be fit for Saturday. Elliott Reeves also hopes that his slight strain will be recovered include him in the squad for Saturday.

Joint Leiston managers Chris Wigger and  Darren Eadie’s squad are currently eighth in the SPL Central Division, with Mickleover in 16th.

They beat Nuneaton at home 3-2 in first game, thanks to a late winner from Will Davies. After a 2-2 at Ilkeston last Saturday, they drew again 1-1 at Royston on Tuesday evening, with a last minute penalty from Davies again salvaging the point.

Manager Eadie is a former Norwich and Leicester City winger, who has made only one change in his starting line-up over the first three games.

Goalkeeper Sam Donkin was signed from Biggleswade in November 2019, having previously played for Whitehawk and Stamford.

Full back Wyatt Hill is a more recent arrival, having come from Wroxham in June after coming back from US College football.

Captain and left back Seb Dunbar came from Stowmarket in July last year. He was an Ipswich Town Junior and also played for Maldon/Tiptree, Bishop Stortford and Bury Town. It’s his third spell at Leiston.

At centre back Adam Bailey-Dennis has 12 years experience under his belt. He started at Aveley, before moving to Bury Town. His path then took him via  Bromley, Bishop Stortford, Hemel and Chelmsford, before joining our hosts in October 2020.

Fellow centre back Jake Hutchings has travelled far and wide since starting out at as a junior with Leyton and Torquay. 

Grays, Weymouth and Frome preceded a spell at Hearts, returning south of the border with Enfield. He then moved on to returned to previous clubs before arriving at Leiston for his first spell in 2016. He left after a year but came back in December 2019, from Braintree and finally came back again for the third time from Kingstonian in May 2021.

Midfielder Rossi Jarvis was capped at under 18 and under 19 by England and was a Norwich City junior. He was loaned to Torquay and Rotherham, before joining Luton Town on his release and netted almost 100 appearances as a league player.

Spells at Barnet, Cambridge Utd and Lowestoft followed, before joining Leiston from Dereham Town last month.

Brother Ryan has England caps as an under 16, 17 and 19. He started at Norwich City too and was loaned to Colchester, Leyton Orient, Kilmarnock and Notts County, before joining Orient on his release.

After many more moves he settled back in East Anglia with Lowestoft in 2015. Then after a move to Kings Lynn he returned to Lowestoft, from where Leiston signed him last month. He played in every division of the football league and the Scottish Premier, with well over 300 appearances.

Another former Norwich junior is midfielder George Quantrill. He arrived at Leiston in May last year, after spells at Dereham and Stowmarket.

Another midfielder and another former Norwich junior, Zach Dronfield came from Hampton & Richmond last month. He had previously been at Wealdstone.

Fellow midfielder Finley Barnes has followed a similar path too, but he came straight to Leiston in July 2020 on his release from Norwich.

Striker Will Davies is a prolific goal scorer, having arrived at Leiston in 2018. He has played over 106 games since his arrival, scoring 34 goals, 19 of which were last season! He has already scored two last minute goals this season.

Joe Marsden is mainly an attacking midfielder who is in his second season with our hosts, since arriving from Needham Market. He was previously at Lowestoft Town. He came back to Leiston in June last year after three years away.

Another midfielder, Adam Mills was signed in July last year from Needham Market. He has also played for Maldon/Tiptree and Sudbury Town.

Left back Ollie Saunders came from Braintree in November 2019. He started as a Norwich junior too, before moving on to Grimsby Town.

Just for a change midfielder Nya Mesuria started out at Ipswich Town. He was released in July last year and came to Leiston in December, after a short spell at Billericay.

Another former Norwich youngster, striker Jamie Eaton-Collins came from Sudbury in July 2020 and has played for Concord Rangers too.

Finally Iuri Fernandes is a midfielder who has been at Leiston for a couple of season.

Kick as usual is 3pm and the game can be followed via Leiston’s own twitter feed.

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