Match Report

Leverstock Green turned in one of their best performances of the season, and claimed their best result of the season as an injury time winner from Adiel Mannion saw them clinch a 1-0 victory away to league leaders Colney Heath. It was a tremendous performance across the board from Matt Harding’s side as they battled for every ball and gave as good as they got against the team nine points clear at the top of the SSML Premier Division, but particular mentions should go to centre-back Ethan Flanagan and keeper Matt Fallon who were both immense today.

With just over a minute played a pass from John Smith gave Ryan O’Sullivan a sniff of goal, but home keeper Connor Sansom was quickly off his line to win the challenge with O’Sullivan. The first shot of the game came from Jack Stevens in the 14th minute and went over the bar, while two minutes later at the other end, Danny May hit a free kick wide for Colney.

The game’s first chance came in the 18th minute from a Leverstock corner. Ollie Cox’s cross was headed away, but only back to Cox, who at the second attempt found Jamie Ovington, who connected with a downward header that brought a good save out of Sansom, and no-one could get on the end of the rebound. The home side’s first near-miss came in the 25th minute with a hooked effort from Brett O’Connor which got past Fallon, but was cleared off the line by Alex Ward. In the 28th minute Fallon saved a header from Jay Lovell, but a minute later pulled off his best save of the game to tip a rasping shot from Spencer Clarke-Mardel over the bar.

The second half continued in the same tightly-competitive vein. There was an early shout for a penalty when a cross from James Hall struck the hand of a defender, but the referee adjudged that it was outside the box and nothing came of the free kick. In the 65th minute Fallon did well again to save a header from a corner, and seconds later Leverstock were away on the break. O’Sullivan was clear down the right and sent over a great cross to Ollie Lawford, who was all alone in the box. Lawford connected with a header that beat Sansom but struck the bar.

Fallon and the Leverstock defence continued to frustrate the home side, and saw off two of the division’s leading scorers in Jon Clements and Chris Blunden, who were both substituted during the second half. As the game reached 90 minutes the Green side and their supporters would have been very happy with the point, but they ended up taking all three.

It was an unfortunate moment for keeper Sansom, who went down to pick up a ball that was coming through to him, but got his studs caught in the turf. Leverstock sub Adiel Mannion was in the right place at the right time to take advantage, nipping in to steal the ball and take it past Sansom, virtually walking it into the empty net to send the Green supporters into raptures. The side held out through the remainder of stoppage time to claim the unlikely but very welcome win.