Leverstock Green now have a ten-point cushion in sixth place after winning another close game on Saturday. It was by no means a convincing win, but one moment of quality in the second half was enough to beat St Margaretsbury and notch up a sixth straight victory for Steve Heath's side.

The visitors had the better of things in the early stages, with the prodigious long throw of Joe Rudkin causing a few problems in the Green defence as the ball flew across the face of goal a few times. In the 13th minute Anthony Anstead got away down the right and sent a lob from near the touchline which had Carl Tasker beaten, but the ball hit the bar.

The first good chance of the game fell to Leverstock three minutes later. Ben Butler won the ball in midfield and put Charlie Gorman clean through, but Bury keeper Alan Buck came out of his goal and dived to claim the ball at Gorman's feet. In the 29th minute Dan Griggs launched a long throw in the Bury box which Lewis Pritchard got a flick header on, but it looped up and bounced on the top of the crossbar.

St Margaretsbury continued to have more of the ball late in the half. On 31 minutes a cross from Simon Hayward found Rudkin unmarked in front of goal, but he couldn't get the ball under control properly and his shot was weak. On 43 minutes Anstead shot over the bar from the edge of the box and in stoppage time Rudkin headed wide from a corner.

The game was similarly tight in the second half. On 59 minutes Tom Scriven had a free header from a Bury corner but headed over the bar. Four minutes later at the other end Butler got on the end of a Lee Bircham corner, but his header was cleared off the line by Ricky Light.

On 66 minutes Steve Heath made a tactical change, replacing Pritchard with Bill Morgan and sending Jon Davies to play up front with Louis Austin. There was another let-off for Green four minutes later when Anstead shot across goal and Paul Evitt put the ball over the bar from close range.

The decisive moment came with 15 minutes left to play. After a St Margaretsbury corner had been cleared, Steve Hatch won the ball from Light inside his own half. A quick pass out to Austin on the overlap put Green on the break. Austin sprinted to the edge of the box before squaring to find Hatch, who had continued his run. It seemed to take an age for Hatch to get the ball under control, but despite the attentions of a defender, the youngster eventually got his shot away and poked the ball into the corner of the net to break the deadlock.

That proved to be enough as Leverstock held on comfortably over the last 15 minutes, despite some late pressure from the visitors. There will be no time for the Green side to rest on their laurels as they have two more league games coming up in midweek, away to Stotfold on Tuesday night and at home to Biggleswade United on Thursday night.