Of all the Town players ready to face non-league Buxton at Portman Road on Sunday in an FA Cup second-round tie, Greg Leigh is out on his own as the only one to have faced the National League North side before.

It was as recently as last season, at the same stage of the same competition, that the 28-year-old left-back, left wing-back or central defender, lined up for previous club Morecambe at the Bucks’ trim Silverlands home, with the Shrimps going through by the only goal of the game, a first-half effort from top scorer Cole Stockton.

Leigh, 28, is fully fit again after a leg injury that kept him out of 13 games in all competitions and came through his comeback game in midweek, the 2-0 Papa Johns Trophy home defeat by Portsmouth, with no further problems.

“It was great to be back out on the pitch again on Tuesday, even if it turned out to be a frustrating night for us,” said Leigh.

“When a player is injured, he is immediately looking to be fit again as soon as possible and I had that feeling 100 per cent. You don’t always know how it’s going to be when you return from an injury but I felt good and it was a great feeling to be back playing again.

“When I heard the diagnosis, I’ve got to be honest and admit I’d never heard of a compression fracture before and I wasn’t even sure what I’d done. But once I was talked through the process of what had happened it helped to calm me down a bit.

“I was in a brace for six weeks but the positive side was that I could do virtually everything else apart from straighten the leg completely.

“I was able to do gym work and stuff on my lower leg, and retain all the muscle I had built up during the season.

“After that I was back in training with some playing and it was evident that because I’d retained so much muscle, I could get back earlier than was expected, which meant two weeks rather than four.

“When I got back on the grass again after the first six weeks I progressed quite quickly and I ticked all the boxes I needed to tick before I was able to start doing things normally.

“It turned out to be two weeks earlier than we thought but it was managed very well by the people at the club.”

Looking back almost a year, to the game in which he played for Morecambe at Buxton, he recalled: “That is a day I will never, ever forget. I once played a game in Canada when the temperature was minus 16 degrees but I swear it was colder at Buxton that day.

“I have never been colder on a football pitch as I was that day. It was live on BBC and they struggled with the conditions so badly that it affected the cameras and the picture that the viewers were seeing at home. With the wind and rain to go with the cold, the conditions were far from normal.

“But we got through and we got our reward when the third-round draw gave us an away tie at Tottenham, which turned out to be a mad experience. We should have won that game, you know, so when we went out it felt like a real kick in the teeth.

“We went ahead in the first half and it took them until about 15 minutes from the end to get level, then they scored twice in the last five minutes to beat us 3-1.

“It was the sort of game you dream about as a League One player, to go to a big stadium and give it a real go against one of the country’s top sides and in front of a huge crowd.

“If we get past Buxton on Sunday, I hope we get a similar draw. I don’t really have a preference but if it was Manchester United at Old Trafford I wouldn’t complain, put it that way.”

Asked if the FA Cup had been kind to him in the past, Leigh replied: “It has, actually. I scored a goal when I was at Bradford, the only one I’ve scored in the competition, and it ended up as a contender for Goal of the Season, so I was happy with that.”

Leigh is happy that the tie will be played at Portman Road, adding: “I think it should help. It’s going to be our pitch, our fans and if we were going to Buxton, it would be a very different situation that would suit them.

“We don’t have to worry about the pitch being a leveller, for example, whereas going there could probably mean more elements that could maybe go wrong.

“We coped well with it at Bracknell but there’s no doubt we see it as a benefit to be playing at Portman Road, where we have stepped out on so many occasions before. But I think going into the game with the right mindset is the most important thing.

“Non-league teams can raise their calibre of performance and make it difficult, and to be fair to Buxton last season they were tough opponents.

“They have some good experienced players as well and there is no way we will be taking them lightly. They will show mad energy, they will look to be well organised and they will put their bodies on the line. It’s important we go into it with a totally professional attitude to avoid any chance of an upset.”

Regardless of the starting line-up, with boss Kieran McKenna likely to shuffle his pack, Town will be heavy favourites to win the tie and advance. But recent League One opponents Cheltenham Town, who drew 1-1 at Portman Road, suffered a home KO to non-league Alvechurch, still the lowest ranked team in the competition.

Leigh added: “It shows 100 per cent how you have to be fully focused and not complacent in any way. I get the impression some players have gone into games a little bit complacent, thinking ‘This is a team we should be beating’ and consequently fallen into the trap.

“In the FA Cup there are always upsets, with non-league sides winning through, and people are looking for them every year.

“We just have to make sure it’s not us on the receiving end. We back ourselves against anyone in our league and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be going into the game as favourites, but we’ve got to do everything right and prepare as if we are playing a league game.

“It’s the lack of focus that kills people, so we must go into it fully focused, energetic and positive about winning the game and not, for example, thinking who we’re going to be drawn against in the third round. Just go out and be professional, focus everything on the game in hand and get it won, then go from there.”

Photo: ITFC

Ipswichbusiness added 20:39 - Nov 25 I used to live near Buxton so I know what he means about the weather; it was one reason for moving to Suffolk!
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