Match Report

Leverstock Green moved emphatically into the First Round Qualifying of the Emirates FA Cup for only the second time in their history as they thrashed Harpenden Town 6-0 in Saturday’s Preliminary Round tie at Rothamsted Park. It was a magnificent performance all round by the Leverstock side, reproducing the form they showed in pre-season and finally finding their scoring boots to pull off a result that did not flatter them at all.

The game was just over a minute old when Leverstock opened the scoring. A push on Chris Blunden just outside the box resulted in a free kick which Jonathan Lacey floated towards the far post, where skipper Shane Wood came in to head past the familiar figure of Carl Tasker in the Harpenden goal.

Leverstock were attacking with real intent, and went close in the 5th minute when Lacey and Mark Smith combined to set up Reynaldo Carbon with a shot that went just wide. There was another chance in the 20th minute as Leverstock broke away from a Harpenden corner. Brima Johnson played a great ball down the middle to Chris Blunden, who shrugged off the last defender to get in a shot which Tasker turned round the post with his legs. The second goal finally arrived in the 27th minute, with a move started by Blunden, whose pass set Lacey away down the left to send over a cross which Alex Witham sidefooted home from close range.

In the 32nd minute Blunden and Johnson combined to put Carbon in with another chance, but his shot was kept out by the legs of Tasker. Four minutes later Carbon turned provider as he played a great pass to Lacey, who worked the space for a shot but hit it just wide. Leverstock were well worth a third goal, and it arrived a minute before the break. Harpenden defender Taylor Blake received the ball on the edge of his box but didn’t control it, allowing Witham to snatch the ball from him and fire home a great strike into the corner of the net to end the first half in style.

Leverstock quickly picked up where they had left off in the second half. Five minutes in, Luke Preedy played a delightful one-two with Blunden on the edge of the box before hitting a shot that Tasker tipped over the bar. In the 55th minute Carbon played in Lacey, whose square pass found Mark Smith, who hit a superb shot from 25 yards that flew into the top corner of the net for the fourth Green goal, giving Tasker no chance.

Blunden went close again on the hour with a free kick that took a deflection and went just wide. The Leverstock defence and keeper Arvydas Kacinkevicius were solid all day and barely allowed Harpenden the sniff of a chance, but on the one occasion where Kacinkevicius failed to hold onto a cross in the 63rd minute, Alex Condon was there to clear off the line.

Goal number five came in the 70th minute as Lacey hit a shot which was deflected into the path of Wood, who neatly headed the ball past Tasker for his second of the game. Lacey did not find the net in this game, but in the 87th minute he provided his fifth assist of the day as he set up Blunden to finally shoot home his first goal of the game. That one rounded off the scoring at 6-0, although substitute Lewis Davis was close to adding a seventh in stoppage time.

The result netted the Green another £2890 in prize money, and they are now in the draw for the First Round Qualifying. The tie will take place on the weekend of Saturday 8th September.