Leverstock Green put up an excellent display against a strong Berkhamsted side in their first game for two weeks, but it wasn't quite enough in the end as the home side took the three points by the odd goal in five.

The Green side made a superb start to the game, as Curtis Donaldson clipped a ball into the box and Ollie Buckley nipped in ahead of Carl Tasker to flick the ball home with less than two minutes on the clock.

It was almost 2-0 in the 6th minute as Donaldson spotted Tasker off his line and launched a lob from 40 yards out which landed just wide. Three minutes later a pass from Buckley allowed Donaldson to run at the Berko defence, but the ball ran away from him as he lined up his shot.

Berko's first effort on target came in the 23rd minute when Dan Weeks hit a low shot through a crowd of players which Liam Jahn only saw at the last second but still got across to save. The Berko equaliser came four minutes later. In a goalmouth scramble following a corner four efforts on goal were blocked before the ball fell for Jordan Frederick, who calmly aimed a shot into the bottom corner of the net.

On 33 minutes Berkhamsted went in front, with an assist from Alex Campana, who twisted and turned on the edge of the box before threading a pass to Bradley O'Donovan, who turned and shot home from six yards out.

Leverstock scarcely deserved to be behind at the break, but three minutes into the second half they fell further behind when O'Donovan had a free header from a free kick to put Berko 3-1 ahead.

The remainder of the match, however, saw possibly the best half of football played by a Leverstock side this season. In the 54th minute they got back into the game when Donaldson was put through and hit a shot which Tasker partially blocked, but the ball continued to spin back into the net to reduce the arrears to 3-2.

Shortly afterwards both Ashley Addison and Ryan Laville came off the bench to bolster the Leverstock forward line. There was a near miss on 65 minutes when Connor Deadman clipped a free kick into the box for Laville to run onto, but he shot just wide.

On 73 minutes Berko could have re-established their two goal lead as Dan Edwards went on a surging solo run before hitting a shot that came back off the post, but within seconds Leverstock were attacking with Addison through on goal. Addison took the ball past Tasker but had been forced wide and couldn't get his shot on target.

A minute later Deadman got on the end of a pass from Addison and ran on to put the ball across the face of goal, where Laville slid into meet it but could only put the ball over the bar.

Leverstock continued to dominate, and a minute from time Laville got up to meet a cross from Donaldson but headed over the bar. The Green side certainly deserved a point for their efforts, but in the end it was not to be as Berko held out to avenge their defeat at Pancake Lane on the opening day of the season.

It doesn't get any easier for Leverstock, with their next three games also against promotion contenders, but if they can take this level of performance forward, they should be confident of getting something from those games. First up is a trip to Hertford Town on Saturday.