Herts FA Charity Shield
Round 1
Hadley 1 Leverstock Green 2
Saturday, 12 August 2006
Leverstock Green progressed to the second round of the Herts Charity Shield, but it was tough on Hadley who were beaten by an injury-time own goal. Leverstock and their opponents from the Herts County League looked evenly-matched throughout, and extra time had looked likely until the late twist.
Green went into the match on the back of a midweek 11-0 trouncing of Chipperfield, and manager Mick Vipond started with James Armstrong and Adam Collins, both of whom scored hat-tricks in that game, up front, and new signing Allan Arthur on the bench. The first chance fell to Hadley in the 4th minute, defender Steve Bray heading just wide from a corner. Green's first attack of note was in the 15th minute when Mark Welling burst down the left touchline. Welling's cross was touched back by Armstrong to Collins, but his shot went over the bar. On 20 minutes Green won a free kick ten yards inside the Hadley half. Josh Price floated in a ball which keeper Marc Cavaciuti came hesitantly to collect, but Steve Boad got there first to send a looping header over the stranded keeper and put Green into the lead.
There were no other chances in a scrappy half, the quality of the play not being helped by the windy conditions. Green took their lead into the break, but paid the price for a slow start to the second half. Hadley went close to equalising on 48 minutes when Craig Bowe's acrobatic overhead shot brought a good save out of James Dewick. Two minutes later a Hadley goal kick was allowed to bounce down the middle of the pitch, and Bowe got on the end of it to burst through and shoot past Dewick for the equaliser.
Arthur replaced Collins on 59 minutes, and the change sparked Green into their best spell of the game. Five minutes later Arthur got on the end of a free kick from Price to head just wide. On 69 minutes Marc Liburd got to the bye-line and pulled a ball back to the near post which Arthur got a flick on but just couldn't divert the right side of the post. Three minutes later a free kick from Price was cleared off the line by a defender. On 81 minutes Arthur got a flicked header onto a long throw from Welling which Cavaciuti could only parry away, but the keeper did well to recover and grab the ball as Darren Caseman came in to finish.
Six minutes from time Bray went close to winning it for Hadley with a shot that went just over the bar, and three minutes from time Lee Johnson headed just over from a Price corner, which looked like being Green's last chance before extra time. However, two minutes into stoppage time Green won another corner. Armstrong took it quickly, pulling the ball back for Price just outside the box. Price hit an effort towards goal which didn't look dangerous until Bray swung a boot to clear it, only to slice the ball past Cavaciuti into his own net. Leverstock made the most of their good fortune to hang on for the win which could herald another successful season of cup football at Pancake Lane.
Team: Dewick, West, Price, Pedder (Burr), Johnson, Boad, Liburd, Welling, Armstrong, Collins (Arthur), Caseman (Leslie). |
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