Match Report

Leverstock Green made their first ever visit to Eynesbury Rovers on Saturday, and added three more points to their tally with an impressive win in difficult wet conditions. Cass Grant, whose red card on Tuesday night resulted in Leverstock playing with ten men for most of that game, redeemed himself today by scoring the winning goal.

There were two more new signings in the Leverstock squad today. Former Berkhamsted striker Adam Mead has transferred from Baldock Town, and defender Connor Church has made the switch from Tring Athletic, and gave an outstanding performance on his debut.

It wasn’t the most auspicious start for Grant, who was in the referee’s notebook with little over a minute played after a robust challenge. The yellow card count was evened up in the 10th minute when Eynesbury’s Scott Sinclair brought down Grant from behind and went into the book. Matt Fallon made the first of several great saves in the 12th minute, turning away a long-range shot from Ash Fuller.

As the rain became more intense, Leverstock won their first corner in the 19th minute, with Ollie Cox finding Frankie Jowle, whose effort went wide. Cox’s game didn’t last much longer as he had to be replaced by Conor Blake after a clash of heads with an opponent. Jowle took over on corner duties, and in the 23rd minute had one corner awkwardly pushed wide by keeper Jamie Greygoose, with the follow-up corner hitting the near post. In the 26th minute a free kick from Jowle was palmed away by Greygoose.

Fallon pulled off another great save in the 30th minute to turn away a close-range shot from Dan Draper, and six minutes later Draper had another chance on a quick counter-attack but shot over the bar. In the last minute of the half Leverstock had a couple of good chances. A corner resulted in a goalmouth scramble in which John Smith hit a shot that was blocked on the line by Greygoose. Grant had a run at goal before his shot was blocked by Greygoose, who recovered the ball just before Jack Stevens could get to it.

After an evenly-contested first half, the second half continued in much the same vein. Fallon produced his best save of the game in the 64th minute to tip over a scorching shot from Fuller. Five minutes later Eynesbury had probably their best chance of the game when Jordan Brown crossed to find Dom Lawless six yards out, but he pulled his shot wide.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 74th minute in fine style. Conor Blake won the ball in his own half and pushed forward before releasing Adiel Mannion down the right. Mannion got to the bye-line and delivered a low cross which found Grant coming in at the far post to finish from close range and put Leverstock into a 1-0 lead.

Fallon pulled off another couple of saves in the remaining minutes to preserve his side’s lead, but this was a hard-working and disciplined team performance that fully deserved the three points and the clean sheet, which takes Leverstock back up to 11th in the Premier Division table.