Make-shift defence sees Eynesbury suffer home defeat

Eynesbury Rovers 0 Rushden & Higham United 2

Rushden & Higham United 1 Eynesbury Rovers 1

EYNESBURY Rovers' makeshift defence - with three of the regular back four missing - allowed the visitors Rushden to capitalise and take all three points on Saturday.

Manager Al Lenihan said while he was missing some of his more seasoned campaigners, he was pleased to give some of the younger talent a chance to gain some experience.

"The youngsters did us proud, all of them showed good promises and we probably deserved a point when you consider the facts," he said.

Rushden quickly grabbed the lead on six minutes. They broke down the left and Karl King slide the ball home from close range.

Minutes later King missed an easier chance to make it two, but the Rushden team continued to press and went further in front from the spot on 16 minutes.

Matt Collins cut through the defence only to be brought down by Lewis Clarke.

Collins recovered quickly and buried the penalty past Dave Beeny.

Early in the second half a Rovers free kick was slotted into the penalty area by Jamie Graham but David Watts' shot lacked power and was easily saved by Sam Foulser.

Beeny kept Rovers from going further behind when he saved a Dave Townsend free kick.

Eynesbury's best move of the match finished with Scott Kingsbury shooting over after Chris Brown and Dan Tyler had combined down the left wing.

nOn Easter Monday Rovers had an early kick-off against the same opponents but Lenihan was able to shuffle his squad.

This time Rovers played with greater certainty and took the lead on 43 minutes through Jamie Graham.

The side looked to be cruising to a win, but a late equaliser saw Rushden take a fortunate point in a 1-1 result.