Match Report

After Tuesday night’s 5-5 draw at Berkhamsted, Leverstock Green were involved in another goal-filled encounter with a promotion-chasing side, but despite fighting back from an early two-goal deficit to level the scores, the Green side ended up well beaten after a tough second half.

There were just three minutes on the clock when Leighton took the lead, George Boland pouncing on a shooting chance just inside the box to fire home a shot into the top corner of the net. In the 7th minute Leverstock missed a couple of chances to clear the ball out of their own box, and this time it was Dom Marsala who took advantage, turning and shooting low into the corner of the net.

Leverstock had barely got into the game at this point, but in the 14th minute they finally got a foothold. Chris Marsh delivered a cross from the right touchline, and Jonathan Lacey came in to net a rare headed goal to reduce the arrears to 2-1.

It could have been 2-2 in the 23rd minute when Casey Linsell’s corner was headed away, but only as far as Lacey, who met it with the cleanest of first-time volleys, but Leighton keeper Tom Wyant pulled off a brilliant save to turn it over the bar. Leighton had the chance of a third goal in the 32nd minute when Lewis McBride was clean through, but Mackenzie Taylor did well to stand his ground and save with his legs. Within seconds at the other end a shot from Chris Gosling was blocked by a defender, but only into the path of Lacey, who slotted past Wyant to level the scores at 2-2 and finally overhaul the long-departed Matt Bateman to lead the Leverstock scoring charts with his 19th of the season.

However, parity only lasted for four minutes as the Green defence was undone by a pass slipped through to Alex O’Brien, who shot past Taylor to put Leighton back in front at 3-2.

The game looked to be delicately poised at half-time, with another thriller anticipated, but within two minutes of the restart Leighton passed their way through the Green defence again for Marsala to score his second and open up a two-goal lead again. That effectively killed the game off as Leverstock were unable to muster any serious attempts at the Leighton goal in the second half. Marsala completed his hat-trick in the 73rd minute with another shot into the top corner of the net, and substitute Bruno Brito made it 6-2 with a shot in the 79th minute, as Leighton comfortably completed their third win over Leverstock this season.

Leverstock’s current run of only one win from their last six games has seen Hadley close down their lead in 6th place to just one point, so they will need to start picking up some points from their remaining six games, the first of which is away to Crawley Green on Wednesday night.