Leverstock Green got back to winning ways in the league with a well-deserved victory over local rivals Tring Athletic in Saturday's match at Pancake Lane. New signing Junior Owusu-Akonor, who had been Vase-tied for the last two games, marked his home debut with two crucial second-half goals before a ten-man Green side had to hang on for the last 20 minutes.

The Green injury list got longer during the last week with both Craig Preston and Max Farrelly being added to it during the Vase ties against Enfield. Skipper Lee Bircham was absent with the flu and Lee Stobbs was unavailable. On the plus side Louis West returned from injury, and there was another new signing in the side, Ioan Vranceanu, from Romania.

The first half was a rather scrappy affair. Andy Humphries had the ball in the net for Tring in the 7th minute, but the linesman already had his offside flag up. Tring skipper Chris Salmon missed a great chance for his side in the 22nd minute, coming in to meet Humphries' corner with a free header in front of goal, but heading wide.

There was another headed chance for Tring in the 38th minute, but Stewart King's glancing header from Tony Fields' cross drifted wide of the far post. The Green forwards were quiet during the first half, but the side did well to defend the slope.

There was a much better start to the second half from Leverstock. On 51 minutes Dan Griggs' cross from the right was nodded back by Owusu-Akonor to Bekim Culaj, who shot just over the bar. Two minutes later Owusu-Akonor went on a run into the box before slipping a pass through to Culaj, but keeper Mike Underwood did well to keep out the shot from Culaj.

A minute later Tring should have opened the scoring at the other end when the ball fell to Humphries six yards out, but he slipped while shooting and Carl Tasker was able to save.

The action then switched back to the other end, where Culaj went on a flying run down the left before sending over a great cross, and Owusu-Akonor came in at the far post to sidefoot the ball home and put the Green into a 1-0 lead, notching his first goal for the club.

Paul Insley replaced Lewis Pritchard just after the hour, and within a minute Insley played a neat one-two with Culaj to go clean through, but Underwood came off his line to save. Midway through the half Tring made a change of striker with Vinnie Iannone replacing Humphries, and Green went to three at the back with Adam Hallissey replacing Ricco Biggi. On 73 minutes Paul Jeffries tried a speculative long-range effort which didn't go far over Tasker's goal.

On 76 minutes Steve Heath made his final change, replacing Vranceanu with Joel Norris. Within seconds of coming on, with his first touch of the ball Norris got up to flick on a goal kick from Tasker and put Owusu-Akonor through on goal. As the Green striker reached the box Matt Jarvis came in with a foul challenge which would have seen a penalty awarded, but as Owusu-Akonor stayed on his feet, the referee sensibly played on for a few seconds and Owusu-Akonor flicked the ball over Underwood to put Leverstock 2-0 up.

It was bitter-sweet for Owusu-Akonor though, as the foul by Jarvis left him injured and unable to continue, and with all three subs already on the Green had to play the rest of the game with only ten men.

On 79 minutes Insley set up Norris for what could have been a third goal, but his shot was straight at Underwood. For the rest of the game Green were forced to defend. On 81 minutes Jarvis had a great chance from a Tring free kick but headed straight at Tasker from close range. Two minutes from time a corner dropped for Salmon, but he shot over the bar. In the 90th minute, though, a through ball put Jarvis in on goal, and the former Green player slotted past Tasker to pull a goal back and ensure a tense period of stoppage time.

After holding on for five minutes of injury time, the game was almost given away at the death. Ben Butler sliced a clearance across his own box to King, who lobbed the ball over Tasker, but Steve Hatch got back to head the ball off the line. Not long afterwards the final whistle sounded and Leverstock could finally celebrate the win.