Match Report

Leverstock Green turned in another excellent performance to beat Biggleswade United 3-1 in Saturday’s SSML Premier Division match at Pancake Lane, extending their winning run to three games.

With regular keeper Matt Evans out injured, and Caolan Doyle-Creamer having trials with the MK Dons Academy, there was a first team debut for under-18 keeper Taylor Mackenzie, who gave a confident performance.

Leverstock had the better of the play from the start, although there was little goalmouth action in the early minutes. The visitors won the first corner of the game in the 20th minute, which Mackenzie punched away to the edge of the box, where Ricky Christie met it with a drilled shot just wide. The opening goal in the 34th minute came about in unusual circumstances. The ball was passed back to Biggleswade keeper Carlos Vivas, and as Vivas was about to kick the ball clear, Jonathan Lacey chased him down. Vivas’ clearance struck Lacey on the backside and rebounded into the net to put Leverstock into a 1-0 lead.

It could have been 2-0 four minutes later when Lacey robbed a defender and threaded a pass through to Nick Jackson, but Vivas saved Jackson’s shot. On 41 minutes a free kick from Casey Linsell was headed down to Luke Marsh, whose shot went over the bar. A minute before the break Linsell was on the end of a foul from former Green player David Parkinson, and got up to retaliate, but the referee showed both players yellow cards.

The visitors made a double substitution at half time, but as has been the case many times this season Leverstock got a goal early in the second half. Biggleswade were unable to clear the ball from their own box, and Vivas did well to parry away a couple of shots, but a third shot from Luke Nugent was parried into the path of Lacey, who had a simple tap-in to put Leverstock into a 2-0 lead in the 49th minute.

A wayward pass at the back allowed the visitors to pull a goal back in the 64th minute, with Kane Farrell slotting the ball past Mackenzie. Farrell went close to levelling the scores four minutes later with a long-range free kick which Mackenzie did well to turn away.

However, the Green restored their two-goal advantage in the 75th minute. Zak Howells, who had come off the bench to return from his second injury lay-off of the season, delivered a great cross to the far post. Ross Adams put the ball back across goal to set up an easy finish from close range for Luke Marsh.

The result was never in doubt after that, with Leverstock collecting a well-deserved three points which keeps them in sixth place in the table and increases their advantage over the seventh-placed visitors to ten points. There were a number of good performances, including Shane Wood and Chris Gosling, but the Man of the Match award went to Ross Adams.

Next Saturday, weather permitting, Leverstock travel to Barton Rovers’ ground to face Crawley Green.