It's Festive Day at Leiston in their final home game before Xmas and they are encouraging supporters to dig out their Christmas jumpers or Santa hats and/or costume for the occasion!

Stourbridge will wear red and white at Leiston.

Saturday's programme is now available to download via their website. Please see either http://www.leistonfc.co.uk/news/eprogramme-now-online-blues-v-stourbridge-2374995.html or alternatively, http://www.leistonfc.co.uk/d/documents.html?group_id=11500

It's a 382 mile round trip for Leiston, so allow around 4 hours travel time.

Cambridge Services on the A14 by junction 28 is just over half-way to Leiston if you want to break the journey for a breather.

Reminder - The club coach departs from the War Memorial Athletic Ground at 8.30 am on Saturday morning.

MATCH PREVIEW

Stourbridge make the long trip east-wards to Suffolk on Saturday in good spirits after securing maximum points from their last two away games at Biggleswade and St Neots and then following that up by seeing off Romulus on Monday night to reach the last 8 of the Birmingham Senior Cup with a home tie against Halesowen to look forward to in the New Year.

Jordaan Brown is likely to miss the Leiston trip through injury, but otherwise boss Gary Hackett should have all his regular starters available for selection.

If he features at Leiston, Stuart Pierpoint will make his 150th appearance for the club.

The home side, nicknamed the Blues, currently sit 8th in the league standings and have been in and around the play-off spots for most of the campaign so far, but their recent league form since beating Biggleswade Town at home at the start of November hasn't been so good with home losses incurred to Rushall Olympic and AFC Rushden & Diamonds, while in-between, the Suffolk side drew at Hitchin.

The 1 - 4 reversal to AFC Rushden & Diamonds was compounded by the loss of goalkeeper Marcus Garnham in the first-half with his side already trailing. Outfield player Joe Jefford going between the sticks. The club have since recalled keeper Charlie Beckwith from a loan spell to cover Garnham's injury.

Leiston had a good run towards the end of last season that propelled them into the Bostik (Isthmian) League Premier Division play-offs with a 5th place finish. They lost their play-off semi-final away at the eventual winners Dulwich Hamlet 1 - 0, but that level of form suggested that they would be a serious promotion contender in the newly created Premier Division Central.

It was therefore something of a surprise to hear that boss Glen Driver had left the club in mid-October but the Blues quickly appointed former Torquay United player Stuart Boardley in his place who had previously played for the club in two spells as well as having stints with AFC Sudbury and Felixstowe & Walton United.

LEISTON - THEIR OWN MATCH PREVIEW

This can be viewed at the following link -
http://www.leistonfc.co.uk/news/leiston-v-stourbridge-match-preview-2375179.html

ABOUT LEISTON

Leiston (pronounced LAY-STON) is a small town of around 5,500 people, which lies just two miles or so inland from the East Suffolk coast and around 21 miles north-east of Ipswich.

Supporters who travel down early or make good time on their journey may like to pop along to the nearby seaside town of Aldeburgh which is located on the North Sea coast.

Leiston thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a manufacturing town dominated by Richard Garrett & Sons, which boasted the world's first flow assembly line, for the manufacture of portable steam engines. The firm also made steam tractors and a huge variety of cast and machined metal products, including munitions during both world wars. The works closed in 1981, but the Long Shop Museum, showing the history, vehicles and products of the works, remains as a heritage tourist attraction.

In the Second World War, RAF Leiston, 1 mile north-west of the town in the neighbouring village of Theberton, sent fighter squadrons of the American 357th Fighter Group to fight the Luftwaffe.

Since the closure of Garrett's, the town's economy has been dominated by two nuclear power stations on the coast at Sizewell: the now decommissioned Magnox reactors of Sizewell A and the more modern Pressurised Water Reactor of Sizewell B.

USEFUL LINKS

Leiston FC twitter - https://twitter.com/leistonfc