Leverstock Green collected a battling point against Cockfosters at the Lords Builders Merchants Stadium on Saturday. After a dubious red card left them with ten men for for over 70 minutes, the Green side dug in and defended well, and had the game’s two best chances. It was a third straight clean sheet for Leverstock in five days.

Leverstock were already without leading scorer Radu-Mihai Stefanoaica, who was serving a one-game suspension after his red card at Real Bedford last Saturday. In the opening minutes of the game Dan Pett appeared to receive an elbow from Harrison Rookard in full view of the referee, but he got nothing more than a talking to. However, in the 17th minute when Guiseppe Delgaudio reacted to provocation from Jay Lovell, who went down clutching his face, the referee showed a straight red card to reduce Leverstock to ten men in what was considered by everyone else in the ground as a very harsh decision.

In a game of few chances, Leverstock had a good one in the 24th minute when a pass from Pett put Luke Beckwith through, but he shot into the side netting from a narrow angle. Cockfosters were finally shown a yellow card in the 41st minute, although the wrong player received the card, and at the same time Josh Dooley was sent to the sin-bin to reduce Leverstock to nine men. Despite their numerical disadvantage, Leverstock came closest to scoring in first half stoppage time when Pett hit a superb shot which visiting keeper Tiernan Parker did well to turn round the post.

The second half saw Leverstock defending against the slope. Cockfosters had little to offer as an attacking threat other than long throws, and the Green side defended them well, with Ryan Carruthers in particular giving a man-of-the-match performance. A low shot from Ethan Rookard on 51 minutes brought a good save out of Liam Gauthier, but otherwise there was little danger of a goal at either end during the half.

Leverstock are still well-placed in third in the SSML Premier Division, and they face a tough trip to in-form Tring Athletic on Tuesday night.

Leverstock Green (0) 0
1. Liam Gauthier, 2. Callum Neal, 3. Rio Beach, 4. Paul Marks, 5. Josh Dooley, 6. Ryan Carruthers, 7. Luke Beckwith (14. Curtis Dibley 66 mins), 8. Dan Pett, 9. Guiseppe Delgaudio, 10. Nat Connolly (19. Scott McGleish 89 mins), 11. Ethan Mooney (12. Ademide Baruwa 74 mins). Subs not used: 15. Brad Robinson, 16. Mikey Havill-Tierney.
Cockfosters (0) 0
1. Tiernan Parker, 2. Kenny Nobrega, 3. Adam Reid (12. Eden Ntege 74 mins), 4. Matt Thomson, 5. Aiden Read, 6. Jay Lovell, 7. Ethan Rookard, 8. Chris Griffin (14. Jon Entwistle 68 mins), 9. Harrison Rookard, 10. Reece Barrett (15. Josh Grantham 65 mins), 11. Antonio Michael (13. George Lutaaya 61 mins). Sub not used: 16. Alfie Gleghorn.