Match Report

Leverstock Green continued their winning cup form into their league match at home to Cockfosters on Tuesday night and registered their first three-pointer of the season. The Green side have now scored twenty goals without reply in their last three games, and tonight they had to do it with ten men for the best part of an hour after an early red card.

Leverstock went close to opening the scoring with less than a minute played, with a header from a corner being cleared off the line by a Cockfosters defender. However, it only took them until the sixth minute to find the net. Jonathan Lacey started the move with a ball down the middle to Alex Witham, whose early shot was parried away by keeper Adam Seymour. Chris Blunden picked up the rebound and crossed it for Witham, who passed it sideways for Lacey to finish the move with a shot drilled past Seymour.

In the 17th minute Leverstock found themselves reduced to ten men. Arvydas Kacinkevicius played a short kick out to Alex Condon, who tried to control the ball but lost it to a Cockfosters forward. Condon tried to win the ball back but only succeeded in bringing his opponent down just outside the box, and as the last man Condon was inevitably shown a straight red card. Sam Ruff’s shot from the resulting free kick brought a good save out of Kacinkevicius to turn the ball round the post.

The loss of a central defender meant that a forward had to be sacrificed to bring Leverstock’s back four up to its full complement, and it was the unlucky Reynaldo Carbon who was replaced by Jude Bell, but not before the Green had added a second goal in the 22nd minute. Shane Wood had the ball in the Cockfosters box but was pulled down by Courtney Clay. The referee awarded a penalty and showed Clay a yellow card, and Lacey made no mistake from the spot for his second goal and a 2-0 Leverstock lead.

Lacey could have had a hat-trick on 31 minutes as he connected with the rebound after Luke Nugent’s shot had been blocked, but Seymour tipped his shot over the bar. Four minutes later a crossfield ball from Lacey found Alex Witham, whose shot was saved by Seymour. Three minutes before the break a pass from Mark Smith put Blunden in to deliver a cross which was just missed by the sliding Lacey. The last action of the half saw Kacinkevicius save a shot from Ruff after a good run.

Within thirty seconds of the restart, the numbers were evened up as a strong challenge on Luke Preedy from Clay earned the Cockfosters player his second yellow card followed by a red. Leverstock continued to play their fast attacking football, and in the 49th minute a great pass from Blunden put Lacey through to take the ball round Seymour and slot into the empty net for his second hat-trick in successive games. On 54 minutes it became 4-0 as Nugent clipped a superb pass in from the right for Blunden to score with a fine first-time shot.

Blunden and Lacey combined again on 64 minutes, but Seymour came off his line to save Lacey’s shot, and saved again on 71 minutes when Lacey’s ball down the middle put Blunden clean through. Kacinkevicius maintained his clean sheet by saving Aaron Crockett’s shot from a narrow angle on 79 minutes, and a minute later Blunden had another good chance but Seymour saved again.

Another excellent performance across the board from the Leverstock side, with incisive attacking play and solid defence making them a tough proposition for any side at the moment. Having gained a crucial three points from this game, they now face a run of four cup games, with the first of those being at home to Hadley on Saturday in the first round qualifying of the Emirates FA Cup. The winner of that tie will be the last surviving SSML club in the competition.