Lions pounce late to deny gutsy 10-man Leverstock

Dene Gardner’s side had to settle for a point from a game played on a heavy pitch and littered with yellow cards.

Both sides found the net early on; in the sixth minute Luke Warner-Eley floated a free-kick into the box, and Nathan Jellow headed home to give Leverstock the lead on his first start for the first team.

However, three minutes later the home side were level with a shot from Hesham Benmansour which Kieran Jimmy seemed to have covered, but the ball squeezed between his gloves and the near post.

There were plenty of chances for both sides for the rest of the half, but both keepers were on good form.

On 13 minutes Warner-Eley pulled the ball back from the bye-line for Elias Moses, whose shot was saved by home keeper Arlys Pampolim, and three minutes later Pampolim tipped a rasping effort from Warner-Eley onto the bar.

At the other end, Jimmy saved a shot from Ali Soussi, and then tipped over a strike from Benmansour which bounced up off the ground.

Levy had been forced to make two changes during the first half. Liam O’Keefe left the game in the 27th minute feeling groggy after an earlier collision, and Scott Melville had to go off injured two minutes before the break.

The second half opened with pressure from Tigers, but on 58 minutes Leverstock broke away from a Tigers corner. Warner-Eley’s pace took him past the last defender Yahya El-Khaboucho, but his shot on the run was brilliantly tipped over by Pampolim.

The game had seen a steady stream of yellow cards from the referee, and on 64 minutes Leverstock were reduced to 10 men when Moses was shown a second yellow for dissent at a free-kick.

However, Green’s 10 men went back in front four minutes later. A free-kick from Warner-Eley was headed down to Callum Wright, who connected with a volley that gave Pampolim no chance.

For the rest of the game it was a question of whether Levy could hold onto their lead. They had a scare in the 88th minute when a free-kick hit the post, and three minutes into stoppage time Jimmy pulled off a great point-blank save to deny Benmansour.

It looked like the three points were heading for Pancake Lane, but in the fourth minute of stoppage time Benmansour received the ball on the edge of the box and hit a low shot into the corner of the net to rescue a point for his side.