Leverstock Green suffered a heartbreaking defeat on penalties as they went out of the Herts Charity Shield at the first round stage at Harpenden Town. The Green looked to have won the game with a stoppage time goal, but were denied by a highly dubious penalty deep into stoppage time.

It was the first game in charge for Dan Manzi, who rallied his team from the dugout despite being on crutches due to a recent leg injury. This performance was a far cry from the last two friendlies, as the whole team showed huge amounts of effort and commitment and were the better side throughout the second half despite being down to ten men.

There were few chances in the first half. Harpenden's Ben Dawes had a run at goal in the third minute, but Green keeper David Bailey saved his shot. In the 18th minute a long range cross from Connor Deadman had to be tipped over the bar by Harpenden keeper Matthew Lord, and a free kick from Deadman went just over the bar on 34 minutes.

Levy were reduced to ten men in the 38th minute. Defender Mark Broome appeared to bring his boot down on the back of an opponent after they had both gone down in a challenge. The action wasn't deliberate, as Broome claimed he was only trying to stand up, but the referee showed a straight red card, one of numerous cards brandished by the referee during a match which never merited them.

The second half saw Leverstock go close to scoring twice. In the 54th minute Adiel Mannion robbed a defender just outside the box and took the ball round the keeper, but defender Tom Warren scrambled back to clear Mannion's shot off the line. In the 82nd minute Ashley Aimokhu got on the end of a Mannion corner with a header that was going in until Mark Hitchcock headed it over the bar.

The game went into stoppage time still goalless, but in the opening minute Levy finally made the breakthrough. Mannion had a run at goal before laying off to Ben Edwards, who hit a shot which took a big deflection on its way into the net. The goal was a just reward for Edwards, who hadn't stopped running all night.

It looked like that would be enough, until the sixth minute of stoppage time, when the referee awarded Harpenden the softest of penalties. Mark Shadbolt appeared to do nothing more than head the ball away, but an opponent went down and the referee blew the whistle. Craig Mortimer put away the spot kick with what was virtually the last kick of the game.

With no extra time at this stage of the competition, the tie went straight to penalties. James Ewington scored Harpenden's first before Edwards' kick was saved by Lord. The next four kicks were successful, with Mannion and Junior Bushiri scoring for Green. A miss from Sam Edwards put Levy back in the game, but they failed to take advantage as Bailey's kick was saved. Bailey made amends by saving Harpenden's 5th kick, and Shadbolt then scored to take the shoot-out into sudden-death at 3-3. Harpenden went back in front at 4-3 before Aimokhu was off-target with his kick, meaning that Harpenden had won the tie.

Despite the result the Levy side can hold their heads high, and after a traumatic pre-season campaign the club can now look forward to Saturday's league opener at home to newly-promoted London Lions with much more optimism.