Leverstock Green stretched their 100% league start to six games and went to the top of the Premier Division table with a hard-fought 3-1 win at Hanwell Town on Saturday. It was an evenly-contested game against a Hanwell side that looks much better than their early season form suggests, but the Green gave another excellent all-round display and took their chances well.

Once again Steve Heath did not have a full squad to select from, with Lee Stobbs carrying an injury from the midweek game at Hadley and Dan Griggs, the midweek matchwinner, unavailable today.

A feature of the game was the pace of Bekim Culaj down the left wing, and that was shown in the 9th minute as a pass from Jon Davies put him away on the overlap, but his eventual cross was put wide by Lewis Pritchard. On 13 minutes Davies ran onto a bouncing goal kick from Carl Tasker and was clean through, but pulled his shot wide. Three minutes later, however, Mark Shadbolt lofted a pass from his own half to put Davies in again, and this time he lobbed the ball over giant keeper Simeon Charles to put Leverstock into a 1-0 lead.

Hanwell had seen plenty of the ball by this stage, but their shooting had been poor. The first proper save that Tasker had to make was from Blaise O'Brien's free kick on 27 minutes. Three minutes later a great ball from defender Marvin Watson put Jayde Spence through on goal, but Tasker stretched out an arm to deflect Spence's attempted lob away.

On 31 minutes more great work from Culaj resulted in a cross which Pritchard couldn't convert, but the ball rolled back to Glenn Thompson, who shot over the bar. A slick interchange between Culaj and Pritchard put Culaj through again on 37 minutes, but defender Daniel Mensah got back to put in a crucial saving tackle.

Leverstock took their slender lead into the break, and it was looking ever more precarious as Hanwell piled on the pressure early in the second half. However, their best chances were from two free kicks just outside the box, one of which was cleared and the other shot wide.

A double substitution saw Paul Insley and Craig Preston replace Thompson and Ben Butler on 57 minutes, and it didn't take long for the impressive Insley to make an impact. Within three minutes of coming on, a pass from Davies found Insley inside the box, but his shot on the turn was saved. On 62 minutes Insley made a great run down the right channel and beat a defender before crossing to the far post, where Pritchard brought the ball down and shot home from a narrow angle to put the Green 2-0 up.

Hanwell still weren't finished, though, and on 65 minutes they finally found their shooting boots when Charley Baverstock struck a thunderbolt from the corner of the penalty area which went in off the far post to reduce the deficit to 2-1.

The game might have gone either way from this point, but it was Leverstock who got the crucial next goal on 81 minutes. Lee Bircham floated in a free kick from near the halfway line which keeper Charles should have collected, but under pressure from Steve Hatch he couldn't hold on. The loose ball dropped for Louis West, who had his back to goal and couldn't get a shot away, but he laid back for Pritchard, who rifled the ball home into the roof of the net for a 3-1 lead.

Insley might have added a fourth in the last minute, but his shot clipped the crossbar on the way over. The points were as good as won by then anyway, and with Royston Town in FA Cup action this weekend, the way was clear for Leverstock to take over at the top of the league. Next up for the Green is a home game against St Margaretsbury on Tuesday night.