Members
of the Molten Spartan South Midlands League
Members
of the Southern Counties Floodlit Youth League
|
| Match Report |
| Saturday 1st
March 2008 |
Molten Spartan South
Midlands League Premier Division |
| Holmer Green |
(0) |
1 |
S.Williams 65 |
| Leverstock Green |
(0) |
3 |
J.Williams og 48, Groves
og 70, Arthur 86 |
| at Watchet Lane |
Leverstock Green
have endured a sticky run of late with
five straight winless games in league and
cups, but they returned to winning ways
against relegation-threatened Holmer
Green on Saturday. They were helped along
the way by the home side, who put two of
Leverstock’s three goals in their
own net, but the win will be a welcome
confidence boost for Mick Vipond’s
side.
Once again Leverstock started without top
scorer James Armstrong, although in this
case it was due to Armstrong serving the
first of a two-match suspension. As with
the previous week's match, strong winds
made playing conditions difficult, and in
the first half at least, there was a
similar lack of entertainment.
Holmer thought they had scored early on
from a corner, but the linesman adjudged
that Carl Tasker had stopped the ball on
the line. Leverstock improved towards the
end of the half, and had a couple of near
misses. On 34 minutes Steve Flain crossed
to the far side of the penalty area for
Frankie Jowle, who cut inside and
sidestepped a defender, but then hit his
shot just over the bar. Three minutes
later Anthony Page connected with a Flain
corner, but his glancing header went wide
of the post.
Thankfully the second half offered a
little more in the way of entertainment
for the spectators. Three minutes into
the half Leverstock received their first
bit of good fortune. Jowle curled in a
corner from the left, which found Page on
the penalty spot with a header towards
goal, but it was the flick off the head
of defender James Williams that took the
ball past keeper Dave Clark and put
Leverstock into the lead.
Leverstock seemed to be in control until
they were caught out by a quick counter-attack
on 65 minutes. Luke Harman had plenty of
space to size up a through ball to Simon
Williams, who was also unmarked, and made
the most of his space with a convincing
finish past Tasker for the equaliser.
Three minutes later Holmer went close to
another own goal when Adam Chaumeton
dived in to head a cross from Jowle clear,
and only just got it wide of the post. It
was only postponing the agony for Holmer,
though. On 70 minutes Jowle found another
good position out wide and delivered an
excellent first-time cross. Matt Wardle
slid in ahead of a defender to poke the
ball past Clark, only to see it come back
off the post. However, the unfortunate
Steve Groves couldn’t avoid the
rebound, and it cannoned off him back
into the net to put Leverstock back in
front.
The lead could have been extended on 77
minutes when Page flicked the ball
through to put Wardle in on goal. Wardle
cut back inside past a defender, but
Clark did well to turn his shot away.
However, there was still time for
Leverstock to add a goal all of their own
making. Four minutes from time
Jowle’s cross found Wardle, who
couldn’t get a shot away but laid
off to Mark Welling, whose cross found
Allan Arthur in acres of space, and he
made no mistake with his header to send
Leverstock away with a 3-1 final score.
| Match
photos (click on thumbnail to
open picture) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Anthony Page
passes the ball |
Allan Arthur goes
up for a corner |
Matt Wardle wins a
header |
Anthony Page is
about to head this corner wide |
|
| Team: Tasker,
Hull, Flain, Boad, West, Page, Sears (Welling),
Hawes, Wardle, Arthur (Stoker), Jowle. |
|
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