Match Report

Leverstock Green came from behind to win their second league game in a row at Colney Heath on Saturday. It was a tough encounter against a team battling relegation, but despite having a few key players missing, Fergus Moore’s side came through to take the points.

Tuesday night’s goalscorer Radu-Mihai Stefanoaica was missing through injury, while Ethan Mooney and Alvin Kyeremeh were also unavailable. Youngster Alfie Herd was drafted in at right back.

The home side had the game’s first near miss in the 9th minute when Connor Cullen hit a shot across goal and just wide. Chris Blunden tried his luck from a free kick in the 14th minute, but his shot went over the bar. In the 17th minute Dan Weeks got on the end of an Ibrahim Nagheeb free kick but his header went just wide. Seconds later the ball was at the other end. As a cross came in from the left, Weeks and Austin Byfield left the ball to each other, allowing Cullen to nip in and find the net from close range to put Colney Heath 1-0 up.

Rio Beach put another free kick over the bar in the 33rd minute, and despite having the better of the game Leverstock’s delivery from free kicks and corners was letting them down. They did however get a deserved equaliser five minutes before half time. Elgeniy Daalberg cut in from the right and headed for the box before sending over a cross which found Richard Ennin, who had to take a couple of touches to bring the ball under control but was still able to lift the ball over Colney keeper Tiernan Parker to level the scores at 1-1.

Leverstock made a good start to the second half, and some quick thinking from Blunden resulted in them taking the lead in the 54th minute. Ennin was brought down outside the box for a free kick. Blunden took it quickly before Colney had a chance to set, and his pass found Daalberg all alone in the box to control the ball and steer it past Parker for a 2-1 lead.

There were strong protests from the Colney side about the quick taking of the free kick, which resulted in keeper Parker being sin-binned by the referee. Leverstock had the man advantage against a makeshift keeper for ten minutes, but the nearest they came to a threat was in the 59th minute when Weeks slid in to meet a cross from Ryan Carruthers, but his effort went just wide of the near post.

The last 20 minutes of the game saw the home side on top and putting the Leverstock goal under pressure. On 72 minutes Byfield did well to tip a rasping shot from Cullen over the bar, and also tipped the resulting corner onto the bar. Despite being under the cosh for long periods Leverstock defended well and held onto their lead through nine minutes of stoppage time. The three points lifts them further up the table into 7th place while Colney Heath slipped into the bottom two with this result.

Colney Heath (1) 1 (Cullen 17)
1. Tiernan Parker, 2. Taran Rattrey, 3. Bradley Dixon-Smith, 4. Ricky Brennan, 5. Myles John, 6. George Taban, 7. Vass Mandeville, 8. Jesse Armoo (15. Hadley Gleeson 85 mins), 9. Courtney Austin (16. Kamel El-Maghur 85 mins), 10. Serge Erkarslan (12. Zino Owhe 68 mins), 11. Connor Cullen. Sub not used: 17. Stephen Dodd.
Leverstock Green (1) 2 (Ennin 40, Daalberg 54)
1. Austin Byfield, 2. Alfie Herd (18. Bobby Armstrong 74 mins), 3. Rio Beach, 4. Dan Weeks, 19. Luke Durnin, 6. Ryan Carruthers, 7. Elgeniy Daalberg (12. Raheem Khan 86 mins), 8. Dan Pett, 9. Chris Blunden (20 Jamie Calvin 85 mins), 10. Ibrahim Nagheeb (14. George Mitchell-Gears 73 mins), 11. Richard Ennin. Sub not used: 15. Ayomide Oke.