Report by Kevin Salter

Playing in their 1st competitive game since 12th January and at the 6th time of asking this County Cup QF match finally took place. Leverstock Green Whites faced tough opposition in the form of a Hoddesdon side two divisions higher in the footballing pyramid but they wasted no time in taking the game to the home side when Cally Salter battled through a couple of challenges immediately from the kick off to set up Anna Novelli who fired home to give Levy the lead within 30 seconds of the start.

Amazingly Anna doubled lead less than 3 minutes later when she hunted the ball down to create and dispatch her second chance of the game against a shell shocked Hoddesdon outfit.

Levy Green continued to press and create other opportunities and should really have extended the lead on more than one other occasion before Hoddesdon began to regain some composure and get a foothold in the game. After a period of intense end to end action Hoddesdon finally got their breakthrough when Levy failed to clear their lines and the home side capitalised on this indecision to reduce the lead to 2-1 on 24 minutes.

Just 4 minutes later however the 2 goal Levy Green advantage was restored when a Hoddesdon clearance fell to Frankie Novelli on the right hand flank and in a moment of inspiration she hit the ball on the half volley from all of 30 yards into the far left hand corner of the goal ... a wonder strike!

With half time looming large Levy Green once again gave their hosts encouragement when a sloppy clearance gifted Hoddesdon a 2nd goal on 42 minutes and saw the teams go into the half time break with Levy holding a narrow 3-2 advantage.

Unsurprisingly Hoddesdon began the 2nd period fired up and dominated the game for large spells of the opening 20 minutes of the half and it was a tough challenge for the young Levy Green players to deal with that level of pressure, but deal with it they did and after settling back into the game began to get more possession of the ball with Mia Hickey capitalising on some Hoddesdon indecision to drive into the box, and just as it looked like the goal keeper had done enough Mia managed to spin with her back to goal to fire home and give Levy Green an unassailable 4-2 lead.

The last 20 minutes were fiercely competitive and as tempers flared the referee began to issue some yellow cards, but with each and every one of the Levy Green players putting in a shift they saw the game home to earn a County Cup Semi Final against the Leverstock Green Ladies 1st XI at Pancake Lane next Sunday.

Thanks to Emma & Pru for going in goal today - Cally Salter was awarded player of the match and special praise to all of the girls for the huge workload they got through in both attacking and defensive duties.