A great effort by Bill Dawes and Keith Pym in clearing and re-marking the lines on the snow-covered pitch allowed Saturday’s home game against Cockfosters to go ahead, but the result did not go the way of the Leverstock side.

After Leverstock had seen the better of the early chances it was Cockfosters who took the lead from the penalty spot, but their lead was short-lived as Jonathan Lacey equalised on 21 minutes, and skipper Shane Wood put the Green in front with an effort from close range on 35 minutes.

Leverstock went into the second half leading 2-1, but an error from keeper Mackenzie Taylor allowed Cockfosters to equalise. A second penalty converted by Oscar Egboh put Cockfosters into a 3-2 lead, and Piero Bagarone added a fourth win ten minutes remaining. Jonathan Lacey netted the third penalty of the game to put the Green back into it with four minutes left, but Cockfosters held on to come away with a 4-3 win.

Next up for Leverstock is a visit to Tring Athletic next Saturday.

Leverstock Green turned in another excellent performance to beat Biggleswade United 3-1 in Saturday’s SSML Premier Division match at Pancake Lane, extending their winning run to three games.

With regular keeper Matt Evans out injured, and Caolan Doyle-Creamer having trials with the MK Dons Academy, there was a first team debut for under-18 keeper Taylor Mackenzie, who gave a confident performance.

Leverstock had the better of the play from the start, although there was little goalmouth action in the early minutes. The visitors won the first corner of the game in the 20th minute, which Mackenzie punched away to the edge of the box, where Ricky Christie met it with a drilled shot just wide. The opening goal in the 34th minute came about in unusual circumstances. The ball was passed back to Biggleswade keeper Carlos Vivas, and as Vivas was about to kick the ball clear, Jonathan Lacey chased him down. Vivas’ clearance struck Lacey on the backside and rebounded into the net to put Leverstock into a 1-0 lead.

It could have been 2-0 four minutes later when Lacey robbed a defender and threaded a pass through to Nick Jackson, but Vivas saved Jackson’s shot. On 41 minutes a free kick from Casey Linsell was headed down to Luke Marsh, whose shot went over the bar. A minute before the break Linsell was on the end of a foul from former Green player David Parkinson, and got up to retaliate, but the referee showed both players yellow cards.

The visitors made a double substitution at half time, but as has been the case many times this season Leverstock got a goal early in the second half. Biggleswade were unable to clear the ball from their own box, and Vivas did well to parry away a couple of shots, but a third shot from Luke Nugent was parried into the path of Lacey, who had a simple tap-in to put Leverstock into a 2-0 lead in the 49th minute.

A wayward pass at the back allowed the visitors to pull a goal back in the 64th minute, with Kane Farrell slotting the ball past Mackenzie. Farrell went close to levelling the scores four minutes later with a long-range free kick which Mackenzie did well to turn away.

However, the Green restored their two-goal advantage in the 75th minute. Zak Howells, who had come off the bench to return from his second injury lay-off of the season, delivered a great cross to the far post. Ross Adams put the ball back across goal to set up an easy finish from close range for Luke Marsh.

The result was never in doubt after that, with Leverstock collecting a well-deserved three points which keeps them in sixth place in the table and increases their advantage over the seventh-placed visitors to ten points. There were a number of good performances, including Shane Wood and Chris Gosling, but the Man of the Match award went to Ross Adams.

Next Saturday, weather permitting, Leverstock travel to Barton Rovers’ ground to face Crawley Green.

Leverstock Green suffered their second home defeat in four days as Leighton Town showed why they have stormed into the top 3 of the SSML Premier Division with a run of seven straight wins and into the last 16 of the FA Vase. Two top quality strikes early in the second half sealed the match although Leighton were generally in control for much of the game.

There was little in the way of chances early on in the game as the two sides cancelled each other out, but Leighton took the lead in the 27th minute. A ball from the halfway line into the Leverstock box dropped between two defenders, and Lea Coulter pounced on the hesitation to nip in and shoot past Matt Evans.

Leverstock started to come into the game towards the end of the half. In the 36th minute a pass from Matt Bateman put Ross Adams through, but his ball across goal from a narrow angle was cleared from the six-yard box. Seconds later Brima Johnson hit a shot from the edge of the box just wide. Three minutes later a chipped pass from Bateman put Adams through again, but Leighton keeper Tom Wyant came off his line and bravely dived at Adams’ feet. Wyant required treatment after the save, and in the second minute of stoppage time added on for that treatment, Leverstock found an equaliser. Chris Marsh floated in a free kick from near the halfway line which Bateman got on the end of to head his 18th goal of the season and send the game into the break with the scores level at 1-1.

The second half started in a similarly cagey fashion to the first half, but a bolt from the blue in the 54th minute put Leighton back in front. Alex O’Brien shrugged off a challenge before hitting a dipping shot from 25 yards that flew past Evans into the net. Three minutes later there was another great strike from James Hatch, who turned on the edge of the box before drilling home a low shot.

Leverstock made a double change on the hour, bringing on Nick Jackson and Casey Linsell, who were both returning after lengthy absences, but despite some promising build-up play they were unable to create any serious threat to the Leighton goal.

A third substitution was required in the 77th minute as Alex Marsh suffered a nasty-looking foot injury and had to be carried from the pitch with blood pouring out of his boot. Leverstock were reduced to ten men for the last ten minutes of the match, as Adams, who had already been booked in the first half, received a second yellow card for another foul. It was Leverstock’s first red card since the opening day of the season.

Leverstock are still hanging onto a place in the top six of the table despite two successive defeats to sides above them, but they will hope to get back on track on Saturday when they travel to Stotfold.