Vipond eyes top five finish for Berko

The Comrades took the lead through Ed Canham in the first half, before Adiel Mannion and Ashley Morrissey struck after the break to make it 3-0 to Berkhamsted at Pancake Lane.

Dene Gardner pulled a goal back late on for Leverstock, but it was no more than a consolation as Berko held on comfortably for the three points against their Dacorum rivals.

“The first half was a bit patchy,” said experienced boss Vipond. “I was surprised that the game went ahead to be honest because the pitch cut up pretty badly.

“But the worse the pitch became, the better we played. They had a good patch themselves, but to be honest I never thought we were going to lose the game.

“Our second goal was a really good team effort with lots of players involved in the build-up.

“The only disappointing thing for me was that I had been going on at the team about keeping clean sheets, but we didn’t manage to do that.”

The Comrades started this season excellently and looked on course for a title challenge, but an inconsistent spell saw them drop down the SSML Premier Division table.

Form as picked up recently, though, and they are currently sitting in sixth place – with Vipond urging his side to finish the campaign strongly.

“We finished fifth last season so I’d like to better that, though I know it’ll take some doing,” said the Berko boss.

“We’ve got a mad last couple months of the season coming up but it’s nice to get some momentum going.

“We’ve got two cup finals to try and get into, as well as trying to finish as high up the table as we can.

“The dressing room is more like I want it to be now because we have cleared out a few of the players who couldn’t commit.”