Pre-season Friendly
Pancake Lane, Leverstock Green
Admission : Free
Programme: None
Attendance: 70 (estimate)
When I bought a discounted but inflexible Advance train ticket to Hemel Hempstead a couple of weeks ago for today, it was with the intention of paying a visit to Hemel Hempstead Town's Vauxhall Road ground for a friendly against Ebbsfleet United. I changed my mind once it was announced that admission would be £12 - in my opinion, far much for a friendly against fellow non league opponents. This fixture I chose instead was originally planned to take place at Ampthill, but was switched to Pancake Lane, apparently due to some mischievous moles on the pitch, to give me a suitable alternative.
Pancake Lane is just over three miles from Hemel Hempstead train station, and although buses are available, there are no direct services from the station, and I decided to walk in both directions, not the most pleasant of walks it has to be said, including a fairly steep hill to climb and most of the distance alongside busy roads. The entrance gates are located in one corner of the ground, and a welcome sign is placed just inside on the pitch side railing. Walking along the length, another, more traditional welcome sign is attached to the outer sidewall of the clubhouse, which straddles the half way line and is bright and airy inside, with a good mixture of comfy sofas, high stools and standard chairs to sit on. Overhang pitchside provides cover for standing, and some wooden benches offer some uncovered seating. On the opposite side, there is a relatively large metallic all-seater stand, which does blend in quite well with the surroundings, consisting mainly of trees, and cars can park around the perimeter of the ground. Indeed, visitors who have little choice but to travel by car are actively encouraged to park inside the ground, rather than risk upsetting the neighbours by street parking. Also presumably to appease the locals, three of the four floodlight pylons are retractable, so that the top half lays horizontal. On a mainly sunny afternoon, Pancake Lane is a pleasant, peaceful location to enjoy football at. As expected, no programmes were produced for this fixture.
Leverstock Green have just completed their 16th consecutive season in the step 5 Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division but did struggle somewhat last season, finishing in 17th place in the 20 team division. For the fourth season in a row, Ampthill Town claimed a mid table finish in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One, finishing in tenth place last season.
I arrived at the ground about 35 minutes into an earlier game between Leverstock Green Reserves and Hatfield Athletic - the first ever game for the visiting team. And I was just in time to see both goals scored before half time, Hatfield's goal coming from a terrific run from the half way line and unleashing a powerful shot from 25 yards into the bottom corner by Dan Harper, with no further goals after the break.
In the "main" game, Leverstock Green opened the scoring on three minutes, Ariel Mannion crossing from the wing and Kane O'Neil volleyed the ball across the keeper and into the net. They scored again on eight minutes when a long diagonal ball by Charlie Milton flicked off a head into the path of Frankie Jowle, and he just managed to stay ahead of a defender as he raced goalwards before he struck the ball past the keeper, showing good composure. It was looking like it was going to be a long afternoon for the visitors at that stage, and they created other decent chances to extend their lead further. But Ampthill pulled a goal back on 34 minutes following a run forward to the box, before cutting inside and thumping a powerful shot into the net, a very good finish. But Leverstock Green scored again on 41 minutes. O'Neil's long run into the box was ended with a good block by a defender, but the ball spilled into the path of Luke Peerless, who struck the ball home first time through a crowd of legs.
The second half was more even, the visitors probably shading it slightly, certainly in terms of good goalscoring chances, but they couldn't find the back of the net again. But they'll be happy with their second half performance certainly, whilst Leverstock Green looked a solid unit with goals in the team. Overall, this was an entertaining, competitive and enjoyable game to watch, and indeed I have been quite fortunate that all of the friendlies I have watch so far this year have been.
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