Leverstock Green secured £2,250 in prize money and a place in the Preliminary Round of the Emirates FA Cup with a very hard-fought 1-0 win away to Southall in Sunday afternoon’s Extra Preliminary Round tie.

It was the Green’s first competitive win of the new season, and owed a lot to a solid defence, and an excellent performance from goalkeeper Arvydas Kacinkevicius. In the third minute of the game, Kacinkevicius was beaten by a shot which took a deflection, but Jonny Miller was on hand to clear off the line. Leverstock’s first effort of the game was a shot from Chris Blunden in the 9th minute which went well over the bar. There were further chances in the 16th minute when a free kick from Mark Smith resulted in a goalmouth scramble, but both Shane Wood and Jonathan Lacey had their shots kept out by Southall keeper Rory Mullane. However, three minutes later a long throw from Brima Johnson found Blunden on the edge of the six-yard box, and Blunden instantly turned and drilled home a superb low shot from a narrow angle to put Leverstock into a 1-0 lead.

For the remainder of the half Leverstock were on top, winning a series of corners, but were unable to put the ball in the net. A shot from Blunden which was deflected over the bar in the 31st minute and a header over the bar from Wood in the 44th minute were the closest they came. The home side almost got back on level terms from a breakaway in the last minute of the half, but Kacinkevicius parried away Connor Spinks’ first shot, and a follow-up effort from Spinks was cleared off the line by Wood.

Southall started the second half very strongly, with Darreon Mark hitting a shot just over the angle of post and bar in the opening minute. Kacinkevicius kept out shots from Spinks in the 49th and 51st minute, and from the corner resulting from the latter chance, pulled off his best save of all to tip a flicked header from Peter Dean over the bar. Southall winger Ricardo Faux-James was proving a tricky customer for the Green defence to handle.

Leverstock’s best chance of the second half came on the hour, when Sam Nair went on a run down the left before crossing for Blunden, who couldn’t get a shot away, but the ball ran for Lacey, who hit a first time shot which Mullane turned round the post with his legs.

Luke Preedy entered the game on 64 minutes, replacing Mark Smith, and was fortunate not to leave it again just a couple of minutes later when he was only shown a yellow card for a strong challenge when many were expecting a red. Kacinkevicius had to punch away a shot from Ryan Hope on 76 minutes, and seven minutes from time Kacinkevicius came out of his goal to challenge Dean, but missed, and was fortunate to see Dean put his effort wide of the unprotected goal.

Leverstock held on through four minutes of stoppage time to claim their place in the Preliminary Round, where they will face a tough Herts derby away to Harpenden Town on Saturday 25th August. Before that they have a league game away to highly-fancied Colney Heath next Saturday.