Match Report

After a run of five league games without a win, Leverstock Green got back to winning ways with a 3-0 win over St Margaretsbury in Saturday’s game at Pancake Lane.

Leverstock had a good chance in the 7th minute when a free kick from Chris Gosling was headed down, but Scott Bonner shot over the bar. In the 15th minute Ross Adams played a free kick crossfield to Luke Nugent, whose cross was headed up in the air by a defender. Gosling laid the ball back to David Lawrence, who stroked home a nice shot from the edge of the penalty area through a crowd of players to put the Green into a 1-0 lead.

St Margaretsbury had a chance to equalise in the 23rd minute when Adams was adjudged to have committed a foul inside the box. Green keeper Matt Evans guessed the right way and may have saved Tom Cowell’s spot kick had it been on target, but Cowell’s kick went wide of the post to keep the score at 1-0 to Leverstock.

There was a flurry of chances early in the second half. In the 49th minute, Bonner headed over from Gosling’s corner. On 53 minutes Cowell tried curling a shot into the top corner for the visitors, but it went over the angle of post and bar. Two minutes later St Margaretsbury were unlucky when Rian Carroll connected with a superb dipping volley from over 30 yards out, but it hit the top of the crossbar. On the hour Nugent played a great ball to Gosling and continued his run to get on the end of Gosling’s eventual pass, but Nugent’s shot was saved by visiting keeper Adam Seymour, who also saved a follow-up effort from Jay Caines.

On 71 minutes Evans pulled off the only serious save he had to make in the game, turning away a free kick from Billy Murray. Two minutes later Leverstock doubled their lead. Substitute Nick Jackson ran with the ball down the left touchline before laying off to Reece Cameron, and Cameron did the rest, shrugging off a challenge on the edge of the box before driving home a low shot into the corner of the net.

It should have been 3-0 but for one of the misses of the season on 77 minutes. Luke Preedy tried to force the ball home in a goalmouth scramble following a corner, but it was blocked on the line. The rebound came out to Scott Bonner, who seemed certain to score, but in trying the blast the ball home, Bonner somehow put it over the bar from less than a yard out. However, the third goal arrived in style four minutes later as Jackson sent over a superb cross from the right and man-of-the-match Cameron slid in to connect with a cracking volley home for his second of the game.

Leverstock’s long-overdue three points keeps them in with a chance of a top-six finish, having made up two points on Hadley today, and the first of their three remaining league games is at home to Holmer Green on Tuesday evening.