With five first team regulars missing Ware still took this game by the scruff of the neck in the first half. They carried on in the same way they had at Biggleswade on Saturday. Chasing everything, closing down the opposition and opening up opportunities on a regular basis. They scored from two of those and had a third disallowed presumably for offside though it wasn’t apparent. We await the match video.
Talk of missing regulars does an injustice to those who fill the ranks. Jay Rolfe and Josh Okotcha have stood tall in defence and did so again in this game. The confidence this induced allowed Ware to go forward confidently to make this one of their best performances of the season.
They took the lead just seven minutes in when Taufee Skandari was quick to seize the opportunity and got between two defenders to shoot past Finlay Murray in the Green’s goal. Skandari was a member of the 2021/2 team that went all the way to the play-off final. He was quick to demonstrate the ability to generate expectation whenever he has the ball.
His return to the club is a welcome surprise after his peripatetic career covering the Faroes, Hong Kong and Indonesia but was it wise to start him? Paul Halsey’s confidence in his fitness turned out to be justified, Skandari lasting the full ninety minutes even through a second half when the going got tough.
He did also demonstrate another side to his game, earning a yellow card for kicking the ball away after an infringement. The card was fully deserved but sat in contrast to what seemed an endless run of fouls throughout the game that saw Ware players floored and needing treatment often without sanction.
It was two-nil on the half hour after the ball was cleared by the Green’s defence but only as far as Khale Da Cost just outside the penalty area. Seemingly without hesitation he returned the ball with a shot at waist height through a clutch of defenders and straight into the net.
A third seemed to have been added after good work on the left allowed Sam Mayumato to carry the ball forward before crossing into the area. From there the ball was turned into the net but the assistant’s flag indicated an infringement the nature of which was obscure.
Ware started the second half in the way they had played the first but Leverstock had obviously undergone a review of their situation. As a result the game was a much more even affair and Ware were too often kept at a distance. It was sometime before they had a shot on goal and even it was from nearer the halfway line than the goal line, Skandari firing a low ball that Murray, with plenty of time to see it, fielded confidently.
It was the visitors who had better luck in front of goal. Shortly before the hour mark some good combination play for once undid the Ware defence. Arlo Coubrough was the beneficiary, slotting past the exposed Fred Burbidge.
The next goal would be important and whilst both sides had a fair share of the ball it was Leverstock who had the better chances. Burbidge needed to tip one effort over the bar whilst there was one moment near the end when it wasn’t clear just how the visitors failed to get the ball in the net. Somehow the Ware defence managed to clear their lines.
As it was Ware did take the points but it was won and justified by their first half dominance. The outcome is that they have gone above Milton Keynes Irish who lost on the night but they’ve dropped below Hertford on goals scored. They remain sixteenth in the table.
Leverstock Green now see a gap opening between them and the sides outside the relegation zone. A three point margin is not critical at this stage of the season and they have the chance to do something about it on Saturday when they receive Stotfold. Ware have no game this weekend but face league leaders Didcot at Wodson Park next Tuesday.
Line-ups and cards
Ware: Fred Burbidge, Max Granville, Matty Ireland (Riley Warmerdam 52mins), Herbie Townsend (C), Jay Rolfe, Josh Okotcha, Rechan Esprit (Theo Ofori 85mins), Jack Taylor, Sam Mayuma, Khale Da Costa, Taufee Skandari. Unused subs: Rylee Kitteringham, Finlay Titchmarsh, Gabriel Ward.
Yellow card: Taufee Skandari 44mins.
Leverstock Green: Finlay Murray, Callum Neal, Vladislav Karychok (Aldo Petagine 46mins), Dan Pett (C), George Mitchell-Gears, Ademide Baruwa, Romari Forde (Ashton Corder 75mins), Nat Connolly (Arlo Coubrough 46mins), Joe McCarthy, Marcus Warren, Iker Noguera Leon. Unused subs: Dan Caey, Lucas Hammer.
Yellow cards: Joe McCarthy 45mins, Arlo Coubrough 47mins.
