Last season Leverstock Green visited AFC Dunstable on the last day of the season and claimed the win they needed to maintain their Step 4 status. There was less at stake this season as Leverstock had already secured safety on Good Friday with four games to spare, but they were in no mood to relax on Easter Monday as Fergus Moore’s side turned in a professional and ruthless performance to put nine goals past the division’s bottom side. It was Leverstock’s biggest win for eight years and their fourth straight win – the first time they have achieved such a run in the Southern League.

Leverstock were on top from the start, and went close to opening the scoring in the 6th minute when Iker Noguera Leon’s shot took a deflection and was saved by keeper Noah Vaughan. A minute later Leverstock were awarded the first of three penalties in the game as Joe McCarthy’s run into the box was ended by a push from defender Tyrelle Joseph. Jeffrey Sekyere took the spot kick, and although Vaughan got a hand to it, the ball still went into the net for Sekyere’s 26th goal of the season.

Vaughan saved again to keep out McCarthy’s close range effort in the 12th minute, and three minutes later Jack Allen headed over the bar from a McCarthy cross. However, the second goal eventually arrived in the 19th minute as McCarthy’s cross dropped for Leon, who took the ball past a defender before drilling it into the bottom corner. Just over a minute later it became 3-0 as McCarthy pounced on some hesitant defending in the box to steal the ball and shoot past Vaughan.

The fourth goal arrived in the 39th minute as Rio Beach cut in from the left touchline and got to the bye-line before pulling it back for Allen, who took a touch before firing home his fourth goal in four games from close range. Allen should have had another in first half stoppage time when a great pass from Leon put him in behind the last defender, but his lob over Vaughan went just over the bar.

The goals continued to come in the second half. In the 55th minute the referee spotted a handball by an AFC defender in the box, and awarded the second penalty of the game. Kombe Kawimbe was given the chance to score his first goal for the club, and duly obliged by sending Vaughan the wrong way from the spot kick to make it 5-0.

Four substitutions were made early in the second half, those coming on included Radu-Mihai Stefanoaica, and youngster George Eldridge, currently top scorer for both the reserves and the under-18s. Stefanoaica went on to score the game’s next two goals. In the 64th minute he picked up the ball on the right before heading into the box on a solo run and firing home into the corner of the net. In the 74th minute Stefanoaica cut in from the left and got to the bye-line before squeezing the ball past Vaughan into the top corner of the net from a seemingly impossible angle.

Two minutes later a ball was played forward to Eldridge on the edge of the box. He did enough to get the ball down and hold it up for Allen to pick up the pieces and blast another shot past Vaughan for his second goal of the game and Leverstock’s eighth. In the 87th minute Marcus Warren got on the end of a cross from Sekyere and tried to take the ball past a defender but was brought down in the box to give Leverstock their third penalty of the game. Sekyere was back on penalty duty and was successful again for his 27th goal of the season and Leverstock’s ninth of the game.

Ashton Broome-Alexander had seen little action during the afternoon, but had to be on his toes in the last minute to keep out a shot from Reginald Aboagye and preserve his fourth straight clean sheet. The result took Leverstock’s goal difference into the positive for the first time since August and maintains the pressure on the two teams immediately above them.

AFC Dunstable (0) 0
1. Noah David Vaughan, 2. Nehemiah Mahon-Bourne, 3. Tyrelle Joseph (18. Buddy Clark 32 mins), 4. James Doherty, 5. Jamie De Beer, 6. Aaron Addy (16. Jude Slough 60 mins), 8. Jeremy JAmissah, 9. Shea Greene, 10. Euan Warlow, 11. Michael Brako (14. Cyril Mensah 60 mins), 17. Christopher Carter (12. Reginald Aboagye 59 mins). Sub not used: 15. Jake Cowley.
Leverstock Green (4) 9 (Sekyere 8 pen, 87 pen, Leon 19, McCarthy 21, Allen 39, 76, Kawimbe 55 pen, Stefanoaica 64,74)
1. Ashton Broome-Alexander, 2. Callum Neal, 3. Rio Beach (12. Ryan Carruthers 59 mins), 4. Dan Pett, 5. Kombe Kawimbe, 6. Ademide Baruwa, 7. Joe McCarthy (16. Radu-Mihai Stefanoaica 49 mins), 8. Nat Connolly (17. Marcus Warren 59 mins), 9. Jeffrey Sekyere, 10. Iker Noguera Leon (15. George Eldridge 59 mins), 18. Jack Allen. Sub not used: 14. Dan Casey.

There was joy for Leverstock Green as they came away from AFC Dunstable with the win they needed to avoid relegation in their final match of the season. Despite going a goal down, Leverstock came from behind to complete their great escape and consign neighbours Kings Langley to the final relegation spot in the Southern League Division One Central.

It was a tight and tense game with little in the way of chances early on. Callum Neal tried his luck with an audacious chip from distance in the 16th minute that landed on the roof of the net. In the 22nd minute the home side were awarded a free kick in a dangerous position just outside the box. George Joyce hit a goalbound strike, but Ryan North pulled off a brilliant save to turn it round the post. However, from the resulting corner Momodou Jallow had a free header to put AFC Dunstable a goal up.

Their lead only lasted for five minutes, though. Kyle Connolly was brought down to give Leverstock a free kick just outside the penalty area. Connolly took the kick himself, and his low shot round the wall flew in at the bottom corner to level the scores at 1-1.

Leverstock had chances to take the lead. In the 32nd minute a pass from Ryan Carruthers put Radu-Mihai Stefanoaica in on goal, but Stefanoaica pulled his shot wide. In the 38th minute Dan Pett played a one-two with Luke Beckwith to go through on goal, but the keeper saved Pett’s shot with his legs. In the last minute of the half, however, Leverstock were putting pressure on the AFC goal, and a cross from Beckwith found Rawn Seale with a header at the near post to send Leverstock into the break with a 2-1 lead.

Leverstock were in no mood to surrender their precious lead in the second half, and their solid defending allowed the home side few sights of goal. There was a chance of a third goal in the 60th minute as a cross from Kyle Connolly was met with a header from Stefanoaica, but it bounced up off the ground and hit the bar.

It was still a slender 2-1 lead as the game went into stoppage time, but in the first minute of stoppage a goalmouth scramble ended with Ethan Mooney smashing home a shot from eight yards through a crowd of players to make it 3-1 and ensure that the points, and safety, were secured.

It was the culmination of a run of seven wins in the last ten games, an amazing turnaround after notching only two wins in their first thirty games.

AFC Dunstable (1) 1 (Jallow 23)
1. Sam Carman (18. Matthew Bonsu H/T), 2. George Joyce, 3. Kyle Brooks, 4. Simone Troso, 5. Stanley Georgiou, 6. Shawn Joseph, 7. Russell Berko, 8. Charlie Davis, 9. Momodou Jallow, 10. Joel Anker, 11. Bruce Ovbiye-Nsang (12. Archie Nicholls H/T). Subs not used: 14. Ethan Holt, 16. Kyle Lynch.
Leverstock Green (2) 3 (K.Connolly 28, Seale 45, Mooney 90+1)
1. Ryan North, 2. Callum Neal, 3. Rio Beach (18. Dan Weeks 90+4 mins), 4. Josh Dooley, 5. Gary Connolly, 6. Ryan Carruthers (14. Nat Connolly 66 mins), 7. Luke Beckwith (12. Lewis Collins 81 mins), 8. Dan Pett, 9. Rawn Seale (15. Guiseppe Delgaudio 90+6 mins), 10. Kyle Connolly, 11. Radu-Mihai Stefanoaica (17. Ethan Mooney 63 mins).