Loughborough 3, Littleton 2

ON a miserable afternoon, Littleton crashed out of this season's Challenge Trophy competition at the second round stage.

Saturday's tie was marred by a serious injury to Littleton's dominant centre half Matt Cotton who was detained in hospital having dislocated his ankle and broken his fibia.

After a delay of half-an-hour, Littleton took the lead when Ben Greenwood finished off an excellent five-man move.

However, parity was restored when Modoli Dardoe took advantage of a lucky deflection that left him in the clear and he easily found the net.

The wind that Littleton had battled against in the first half had died away at the start of the second when Loughborough threw everything at the visitors.

It needed a great blocking save from Micky Harris and an athletic goalline clearance from Adam Stevenson to keep the visitors level.

And that stout defending was rewarded when a fine through ball from Matty Edwards found Matt Staley who calmly slotted the ball into the net.

Loughborough weren't finished and equalised 15 minutes from time when Dardoe beat Harris and five minutes later they took the lead when a shot that Harris had covered took a wicked deflection off a defender.

In the final minute, the visitors thought they had a cast-iron case for a penalty when Joe Wright was brought down but the referee gave the free-kick just outside the box.

The two sides will lock horns for a third time this season on Saturday when Loughborough visit Five Acres (2.45) in the Divisional Knockout Cup.