Berkhamsted 7-3 Leverstock Green: Live Football is BACK!






They say you always remember your first game. But they never say you always remember your first game back after the second or third wave of a pandemic. Nonetheless, that’s also very true, especially if it’s a ten goal thriller.


The first game back after last time feels like a lifetime ago, but it was only September 2020 when I’d made that beautiful first step back into a stadium - a 4-2 win for hosts Cockfosters over Stanway Rovers in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round. Before my trip to North London, I’d had to wait six months for another live game, following a 3-1 defeat for my beloved (and hapless) Stevenage in Crewe that I’d learned to appreciate more than I could have imagined at the time. It was to be the last time seeing friends for half a year.



Fast forward to that night in Cockfosters, and it seems as if all is back to normal. Seventeen games later, I find myself at another game that feels like a swansong of sorts; Biggleswade United v Harpenden Town. A month of lockdown in November sees lower league football suspended indefinitely, before a brief December return that transpires to be all but too brief. Though my adopted non-league side Biggleswade United ran out impressive 4-1 winners, it was to be the last game for a long while. Unlike the Crewe game, however, we all knew it at the time.
The first ending (Crewe)

The first restart (Cockfosters)

The final ending? (Biggleswade United)



But now, surely football is finally back for good, right? After another five months of tedious televised football featuring crowd noise, seeing fans back on the terraces has been genuinely heart-warming. Seeing a packed out non-league ground with beers flowing aplenty is perhaps even more so, even if it is just for a friendly between Berkhamsted and Leverstock Green - two local rivals with not a lot between them, geographically at least. Leverstock Green are at Step 5, whereas Berkhamsted are a league higher at Step 4.


Broadwater, home of Berkhamsted FC


In the early stages of the game, however, that difference wouldn’t appear entirely obvious, with the away side taking a magnificent lead via a scorpion kick from striker Lawrence Bunker after three minutes. Welcome back football. Oh, how we’ve missed your absolute nonsense.



Jevon Campbell levels immediately with a beautiful strike off the post for Berko, before James Verney turns the game on its head. But then a defensive mishap sees the hosts pegged back again via Fraser Bryden - 2-2 with only 18 played. £1.25 per goal already.



Jevon Campbell gets a second, before Eric Lopez converts from the spot to make the step difference more apparent, even if the defences are seemingly more impacted by lockdown than the forwards.



James Hall pulls one back after the break, before Berko really start to pull away. Verney bags his 2nd, before Lopes does the same to make it six. Then Verney crowns off an absolute goal glut with a hat-trick goal to make it 7-3. In doing so, he renders a post-pandemic friendly the most goal-laden game I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. Earlier in the day, I’d been discussing a couple of 7-2 games that I’d been lucky enough to attend (Watford 7-2 Blackpool and Royston Town 7-2 Stevenage XI), but I’d never expected to see a game go one better. To happen in the first game back in a stadium is even more beautiful, and hopefully a sign that the beautiful chaos of live football will continue unabated this time.



To talk more about Berkhamsted itself, it’s an absolutely beautiful town - a real hidden gem if ever I’ve seen one. As soon as you make your way under the narrow underpass, you’re greeted by a gorgeous canal and the ruins of an old castle (Berkhamsted Castle). Park up outside the castle (a walk around the ruins is free and well worth it) and you’re only a quick walk from the stadium (Broadwater, pictured above), which sits just behind some rather nice (and undoubtedly expensive) houses. Add into the equation the opportunity to sit indoors and eat (twice!) and it’s amazing to consider just how much we’ve taken for granted during this horrifying year. 



The canal, right near the castle - all a stone's
throw from the ground

The beautiful Berkhamsted Castle.


So am I expecting the pandemic to have made defenders extinct? Perhaps at the lower levels where defenders are somewhat out of practise, but the scoreline of today is just a magnificent bonus. We’ll get the odd goalless draw, the drab 1-1, the tentative 1-0, the chanceless 0-1; of course we will as we make our gradual returns to stadia up and down the land. But even the most turgid of 0-0 draws beats nothing at all. Football doesn't just have a pulse again; it's alive and kicking.


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