Ex-QPR man runs riot as Melton Town ship seven

The visitors made the 60-mile trip to Digital Deadline Park bang in form while Melton went into the game with five defeats in their previous six league games.

The Town players were aware they needed to turn their form around and were playing for places for the upcoming cup quarter-final.

But they were behind within three minutes when a Melton corner was cleared upfield and with some slick passing, Buckingham slipped a ball through to Leon Lobjoit who made no mistake with a well-placed finish.

Within 10 minutes it was 2-0 when Lobjoit went down under pressure from Kieran Clayton and got up to dispatch the penalty.

Melton never got going with their midfield overrun and defence chasing shadows as Buckingham constantly broke down the channels.

One of these runs saw the home defence beaten for pace and from a three-on-three, a Buckingham shot found the top corner.

A badly defended corner and an uncontested header made it 4-0 on the half-hour.

The league’s leading scorer Lobjoit, who was released by QPR at the end of last season, was causing Town’s defence all sorts of problems.

Tony Thorpe quickly changed from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 to try to negate Buckingham’s speed down the flanks, but before the system had taken shape, Lobjoit weaved past three players to complete his hat-trick.

A first half to forget and probably the worst performance of the season meant things could only get better.

And so they did as Town came out in the second half with a new fight about them.

For 40 minutes the game was even and but for some excellent defence, Melton may well have found the net.

But with 5 minutes left a rare Buckingham attack down the right and floated cross found their striker unmarked at the back post to nod in.

Lobjoit showed the gulf in class just before full-time as he went on a 30-yard run, weaving in and out of the midfield and defence, before shooting low into the bottom corner to make it four for him and seven for Buckingham.

Melton host Woodford on Saturday in a must-win game for their hopes of a top eight finish and qualification for next season’s FA Cup.