Leverstock Green suffered an injury time heartbreak as Tring Athletic fought back to win the Dacorum derby with two late goals. The Green deserved at least a point for their efforts, but ended up coming away with nothing from a close-fought match typical of the encounters between these two sides.

Both sides fielded vastly-experienced centre-forwards who have played for the other side, with Mark Burfoot turning out for Leverstock and Mick Swaysland for Tring, although neither player had a huge impact on the game.

The first half was a rather scrappy affair with few chances for either side. On 16 minutes Tring forward Paul Jefferies went on a long run towards the Green box but ended up shooting wide. On 27 minutes a cross to the far post found Rob Duncan, who headed over the bar, while two minutes later a cross from Duncan went right across the face of the Green goal and only Andy Hughes will know how he failed to connect from six yards out in front of goal.

Leverstock's first effort on target was a free kick from Dan Griggs in the 32nd minute which was comfortably saved by Tring keeper Nick Law, while at the other end Carl Tasker did well to tip a close range header from Matt Jarvis over the bar in the 41st minute.

Despite the fact that Tring had looked more like scoring, it was Leverstock who went into half time with the lead. A minute before the break an outswinging corner from Griggs found Craig Preston, who headed towards goal and Louis West hooked the ball home from a yard out to open the scoring.

The second half saw Leverstock sitting back on their lead, allowing Tring to come at them while looking for chances on the break. Both sides made substitutions around the hour mark, with Tring bringing on Vinnie Iannone and Martin Griggs for Swaysland and Joliffe, and Leverstock replacing Junior Owusu-Akonor with Lewis Pritchard and Burfoot with Ben Butler. It was the Tring substitutes that proved to have the biggest impact on the game.

Initially the Green tactics seemed to be working, with Tring mostly hitting long-range efforts off-target, while still having chances of their own. On 70 minutes a well-struck shot from Pritchard was turned round the post by Law, and on 79 minutes a long-range volley from Griggs went just over the bar.

However, the Tring pressure eventually paid off. In the 82nd minute a cross from the right found Jefferies in space, and he headed back across goal where substitute Iannone was on the spot to shoot home the equaliser.

Tring now had the momentum in their favour, although as the game went into stoppage time there was still a sense that it could have gone either way. Almost four minutes of stoppage time had been played when Tring had a throw-in near the corner flag. The resulting cross was not adequately cleared, and the ball ran to the other substitute Martin Griggs, who caught it perfectly from the edge of the box and struck a shot through a crowd of players into the net for the winner.

It was a disappointing result which leaves Leverstock still hanging on to sixth place, but now five points behind Tring in fifth. Steve Heath must now pick his players up for the much-delayed Challenge Trophy semi-final against Haringey Borough, which has now been switched to Pancake Lane due to Haringey's floodlight problems and will be played this coming Tuesday night.