Two late goals ended Leverstock Green’s run in the Herts Senior Cup, but the Green side gave an excellent performance against Ryman League opposition and were only a couple of minutes away from taking Cheshunt to penalties.

After Mark Berg had made an early save with his feet to keep out a Cheshunt shot, it was Leverstock who opened the scoring in the 7th minute. It began with a run from Curtis Donaldson and a ball across the face of goal which was cleared by defender James Thomas. The resulting corner caused chaos in the Cheshunt six-yard box and Jack Watts lashed the ball home.

There was a change of fortune for Watts in the 15th minute when he appeared to win the ball with a tackle inside the box, but the referee saw it differently and awarded a penalty to Cheshunt. Their chance to equalise was wasted, though, as Emmanuel Osei hit the spot kick well wide.

A minute later Jonathan Lacey could have doubled Leverstock’s lead when he was through on goal, but keeper Michael Gooch came off his line to save. Three minutes later Green keeper Berg made a great save to tip a shot from Thomas onto the bar. Daniel Okeema followed up to net the rebound but was flagged offside. Cheshunt finally got their equaliser in the 22nd minute as Jason Hallett was put through on goal and ran on to finish confidently past Berg.

Lacey went close again in the 37th minute after a run from Lewis Davis set up him with a chance, but his attempted curler into the top corner went just over the bar. Instead it was Cheshunt who went into half time with a 2-1 lead as Thomas crossed for Jamie Smyth to stab the ball home from close range a minute before the break.

Leverstock had to make a double change at half time, with Reynaldo Carbon and Ross Adams replacing Donaldson and Casey Linsell. They went close to levelling in the 48th minute as a pass from Lewis Bowers put Lacey in on goal, but he shot into the side netting from a narrow angle. At the other end Cheshunt had a few chances but failed to hit the target from any of them.

Leverstock got a deserved equaliser just after the hour mark. Carbon showed great footwork as he weaved his way into the box and hit a shot which Gooch parried, however the rebound fell for Bowers, who forced the ball home to make it 2-2.

Three minutes later both George Biggadike and Kendall Allen went close from a Lacey corner. On 67 minutes there was more good work from Carbon as he put the ball across the face of goal with Adams set to score until Jordan Spearman got in just ahead of him to clear. On 81 minutes a pass from Carbon set Lacey up with his best chance of the match, and Lacey looked certain to score as he beat the last defender on the edge of the box, but Gooch pulled off a superb one-handed save to keep out his shot.

As the minutes ticked down it looked likely that the game would go to penalties, but a minute from time Cheshunt were awarded a free kick in a dangerous position 25 yards from goal. All their previous efforts in the half had been off-target, but this time Hallett made no mistake as he sent the free kick flying into the top corner of the net, giving Berg no chance.

Leverstock then won a corner at the other end, and sent everyone up in an attempt to save the game, but the corner was poor, allowing Cheshunt to break quickly, and Hallett had an easy shot from the edge of the box to complete his hat-trick and give the scoreline a rather flattering look for the home side.

Leverstock return to league action this Saturday with a home game against Holmer Green.