Leverstock Green are through to their third cup final in two seasons, as they overcame the challenge of Sun Postal Sports to reach the Herts Charity Shield final. Their opponents at the County Ground in Letchworth will be St Margaretsbury on a date to be decided. The win came at a heavy price, though, with three more injuries and another sending-off that will stretch an already depleted squad even further with some difficult games coming up soon.

 

The visitors, who play in the division below Leverstock, started the game strongly and could have gone in front in the 4th minute. Chris Eldridge was put clean through, and took the ball round Derek Lewis, but was forced wide and hit his shot into the side netting. Green’s best chance of an evenly-contested first half came on 17 minutes when Darren Caseman burst through on a solo run, but a heavy touch allowed the keeper to come out and block, and eventually gather the loose ball.

 

Mark Welling picked up an ankle injury in the first half and had to be replaced at half time by Ryan Upton, and only 8 minutes into the second half Caseman was injured by a bad challenge, with Chris Burr coming on in his place. Green should have taken the lead two minutes later when Allan Arthur came in to meet Louis West’s cross inside the six-yard box, but shot over the bar.

 

Josh Price left the game with a groin strain a minute later, giving the highly-rated 16-year old Lee Waryszniuk a first team debut. To complete an eventful few minutes, John Pedder fed the ball to Arthur on the edge of the penalty area, and he turned and fired home a tremendous shot to put Green into a 57th minute lead.

 

In the 65th minute Arthur went from hero to villain as he was involved in an incident with Sun’s Russell Bindley which saw both players receive straight red cards. However, Green continued to play well and increased their lead on 71 minutes. A great ball from Burr gave James Armstrong a run at goal. Sun defender Chris Paul chased back to challenge, but as Armstrong cut across the penalty area, Paul’s outstretched leg brought him down. The referee awarded the penalty, and Armstrong made no mistake from the spot to put Green 2-0 ahead.

 

Sun offered little threat to Lewis’s goal after that, although they might have pulled one back in the last minute when Lewis failed to clear after racing out of his goal, but Anthony Payne shot wide of the unguarded net, and Green’s passage to the final was assured.

 

Team: Lewis, West, Price (Waryszniuk), Matthews, Johnson, Boad, Pedder, Welling (Upton), Armstrong, Arthur, Caseman (Burr).