Report by Kevin Salter

Levy Green Whites gave their loyal band of followers a fright in their title bid, when they laboured against a well organised and extremely competitive Watton Ladies team.

Having relocated to the Leverstock Green shops pitch, both sides had to contend with a pitch in particularly poor condition and that coupled with a strong wind made the game very difficult, especially in the 1st half with the Whites kicking up the slope.

Such was the pressure imposed on the back line by Watton in the opening exchanges that it appeared only a matter of time before the defence would be breached and this forced Levy into an early positional change with Leigh being moved from the front line to the centre of defence to add more physical presence to the back four.

Levy looked a threat on the counter with Ellen Salter being very effective down the left hand flank and giving the Watton right back a hard time, and it was her pass to Cally that saw a penalty awarded when Cally's quick feet wrong footed the defender and she was brought down in the penalty area for the easiest decision the referee had to make all day. Ellen stepped up on 9 minutes to take the penalty, which she didn't catch at all well and the ball went the wrong side of the left hand post.

Just 3 minutes later Levy were on the wrong end of a 1 nil scoreline when a near post effort went through Rebecca's legs for a soft goal. The remainder of the half saw Watton continue to compete across the pitch and with Levy battling the slope, the elements and their own indifferent form they were fortunate to get to half time only 1 nil down, although the last 10 minutes of the half were probably their best spell of the match and at least gave some optimism that the game could be turned around.

The second half onslaught was held up for the opening period of the 2nd half with Watton once more causing Levy Whites problems defensively, but gradually the tide began to turn in the home sides favour.

As the clock ticked down it seemed that the goal would never come, with Levy running out of ideas up front and too often balls from midfield being overplayed down the centre into the goalkeepers hands.

Eventually, when the title challenge looked to be over Mia played a teasing ball through to Pru, who chased through on goal, saw her first effort partially smothered by the excellent goalkeeper, but kept her feet and composure sufficiently to poke home the loose ball from a couple of yards out for an equaliser, with just a few minutes of normal time remaining.

Levy were revitalised and from the kick off ran at Watton and within 2 minutes Anna played in Frankie down the right hand flank and she cut inside and dispatched a calm shot into the far left hand corner of the goal for a hugely important 2nd goal for the Whites.

With 5 minutes of stoppage time remaining The Whites took the pragmatic approach and once again dropped Leigh into the defence and Anna back into midfield and ran out the remainder of time allotted for a priceless 3 points.

This was a very disjointed performance from the Whites and one that looked to be a costly one, but once more the girls never say die attitude saw them over the finish line.

Ellen had an excellent 1st half performance and special mentions to both Cally who battled relentlessly throughout and the fantastic versatility of Leigh who not only shored up defence in the 1st half, but created front line danger in the 2nd half and then once again dropped in to protect the back line and see the game through.