Match Report

Leverstock Green came away from Saturday’s home game against Colney Heath with nothing, and it was all they deserved from a performance that manager Scott Dash described as “not good enough”. For the second time in a matter of weeks, Leverstock ended up on the losing side against a team reduced to ten men for half the game.

The early stages of the game were very scrappy, with neither side able to get an effort on target. In the 12th minute a cross from Tremayne Charles went across the face of goal and just eluded Lewis Bowers at the far post, and in the 18th minute Jonathan Lacey shot over the bar. A minute later at the other end Jamie Eames shot just over the bar after beating Karl Thomas from a long goal kick. Two minutes later Luke Dolan had the closest effort of the game with a shot that dipped just over the bar.

Five minutes before half time Colney Heath were reduced to ten men when Lawrence Olorunfemi was shown a straight red card. The offence was a retaliatory kick at George Biggadike which was spotted by the linesman.

Leverstock were attacking down the slope with a man advantage in the second half, but the performance was no better than the first, with players holding onto the ball too long, poor passing and a lack of ideas. Colney Heath took the lead in the 56th minute somewhat out of the blue as Eames hit a shot along the ground from 25 yards which Liam Jahn seemed to have covered, but couldn’t keep out.

Colney keeper Charlie May made his first serious save of the game in the 64th minute, tipping over a shot from Luke Preedy, but it was only over the closing minutes that Leverstock began to look like scoring. On 83 minutes a pass from Danilson Vicente allowed Curtis Donaldson to take the ball round May, but he could only put it into the side netting from a narrow angle.Two minutes later Thomas crossed from deep and Charles connected with a looping header that was just over the bar. In the 4th minute of stoppage time Bowers came agonisingly close to an equaliser with a shot from 20 yards that hit the post and bounced out.

Further into stoppage time Leverstock themselves were reduced to ten men when Jack Watts was shown a red card for foul and abusive language, and Colney Heath held on for a win that they certainly deserved.

It was a particularly disappointing display coming on the back of excellent results at Hertford and Leighton, with the return of Brima Johnson being just about the only positive from the game. Next Saturday Leverstock face a visit to league leaders London Colney.