Members
of the Molten Spartan South Midlands League
Members
of the Southern Counties Floodlit Youth League
|
| Match Report |
| Tuesday 18th
March 2008 |
Molten Spartan South
Midlands League Premier Division |
| St Margaretsbury |
(2) |
4 |
Herod 6, 59, Linger 14,
Birne 67 |
| Leverstock Green |
(1) |
2 |
Jowle 32, Armstrong 89 |
| at the Recreation
Ground |
A disappointing
performance saw Leverstock Green crash to
a heavy defeat at St Margaretsbury in
Tuesday night’s game.
From the opening exchanges Green looked
sloppy at the back, giving the ball away
and not taking their chances to clear. It
was no surprise when the home side took
the lead in the 6th minute. A cross into
the box was headed down by Andy Birnie,
who won the ball under challenge from two
defenders, into the path of Ben Herod,
who hit a sweetly-struck drive from just
outside the box into the corner of the
net that gave Carl Tasker no chance.
Green might have levelled the scores in
the 12th minute, firstly when James
Armstrong showed some skill on the edge
of the box, but had his shot saved by
Kris Smithers, and shortly after when
Matt Wardle had a shot saved by Smithers
and Armstrong put the rebound wide.
Instead they found themselves two down in
the 14th minute. Paul Taylor’s
defence-splitting pass put Herod through
on goal. Tasker came out and saved
Herod’s shot with his legs, but
Mitchell Linger dived in to head the
rebound in off the underside of the bar.
Leverstock pulled a goal back in the 32nd
minute. Steve Flain’s crossfield
ball was headed on by Anthony Page to
Frankie Jowle, and he drilled home a shot
from a narrow angle to put Green back in
the game. They had another chance a
minute before the break when Flain’s
corner found Wardle at the far post, but
he headed wide. However, Louis West had
to clear a shot from Herod off the line
in stoppage time to keep the half-time
score down to 2-1.
Early in the second half, it looked as
though Green might get something out of
the game. Jowle hit a free kick over the
bar on 52 minutes, and had a shot on the
run saved by Smithers a minute later.
Five minutes later Wardle volleyed just
wide after Page headed a free kick down
into his path. However, the frailties at
the back were exposed again on 59 minutes.
Linger was allowed to go on an
unchallenged mazy run before laying off
to Herod, who struck a superb fierce shot
from the narrowest of angles past Tasker
to make the score 3-1.
Green’s challenge looked over at
this point, and St Margaretsbury added a
fourth on 67 minutes when Loren Maxwell
was allowed to get through far too easily
to put over a cross and Birnie slid in to
finish from close range.
Some late substitutions pepped up the
Green attack, and they pulled back a
consolation goal a minute from time. Page
hit a ball over the top to Armstrong, and
as Smithers came racing out of his goal,
Armstrong finished with a perfectly-judged
lob over the stranded keeper. |
| Team: Tasker,
Brown (Stoker), Flain, Boad (Hull), West,
Page, Parsons, Wilson (Davies), Armstrong,
Wardle, Jowle. |
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