Leverstock Green stumbled to another defeat, losing to a last-gasp Stotfold goal after it looked as though they had done enough to rescue a point. The game had an end-of-season feel about it, and wasn't the best for the spectators with most of the action happening in the last five minutes.

The Green had the best of the chances in the first half. In the 9th minute a ball forward from Liam Hind wasn't cut out by a defender, leaving Dan Lake through on goal. Lake's shot went past the keeper but was cleared off the line by defender Chris Clarke. Four minutes later a cross from Damion Cruickshank was almost turned into his own net by Stotfold defender Joe McCabe, but he recovered just in time to hack the ball off the line.

Leverstock looked reasonably comfortable, until a defensive slip saw them fall behind on 21 minutes. Lee Gardner passed the ball back to Hind, who lost his footing and gave the ball away to leave Tremayne Charles clean through. As Kieron Jimmy came off his line, Charles unselfishly laid off to Nyasha Sagwete, who almost let the chance go away, but eventually stroked the ball into the empty net.

There was another great chance for Leverstock in the 29th minute when Chad Pinching's pass put Lake through on goal again, but Lake steered his shot inches wide of the goal. Seconds later the Green were unlucky when a thunderous long-range effort from Lee Gardner rattled the crossbar.

The second half was a disappointment from the Green perspective, as they attacked down the slope but failed to put any pressure on the Stotfold keeper. Too often their passes were cut off by the organised visitors' defence, and the crosses were too easily headed away. At the other end Jimmy kept the score down, turning a shot from Sagwete wide on 64 minutes, and saving again when the striker was clean through on 81 minutes.

Five minutes from time Leverstock were thrown a lifeline when Damion Cruickshank was brought down by a clumsy challenge just inside the box. The referee awarded the penalty, and Liam Hind put the spot kick away to level the scores at 1-1.

However, within a minute at the other end Sagwete was through again, and as he tried to lob the ball over Jimmy, the Green keeper brought him down. Jimmy got away with a yellow card, but Stotfold had a penalty of their own. Jimmy redeemed himself though by diving to his right to turn away the penalty from Charles.

A draw looked the likely result then, but in the first minute of stoppage time Stotfold won a corner. The ball was cleared to the edge of the area, where Shane Carthy caught it with the cleanest of first-time strikes which flew through a crowd of players and went in off the post for the winner.

It was a second defeat on the trot for Leverstock, who now face a tough week with home games against Berkhamsted on Tuesday night and Ampthill Town on Thursday night, both 7.30 pm kick-offs.