Bovingdon make the short journey to Evergreen this evening bidding to take another step closer to the Herts Senior County League title, but the Premier Division leaders will be keen to avoid a repeat of Saturday when they dug themselves out of a sizeable hole to win another derby 3-2 against Chipperfield Corinthians.

The victory leaves Lee Bircham’s men nine points clear at the top with four games in hand on second-placed Ware Sports. They overtook Letchworth Garden City, who were in second at the start of play on Saturday, but were beaten 1-0 at Cuffley.

For much of Saturday’s contest though, it looked like Bovingdon were heading for a just a second defeat in their 20th league outing as the form guide was thrown out of the window.

It was largely a case of attack against a Chipperfield side defending for their lives until the 36th minute when a lapse in concentration allowed the prolific, but until that stage quiet, Adrian Abramian to fire Corinthians in front.

The pattern of the game continued after the break, with Bovingdon getting into some good positions, only for the final ball to found wanting.

But the hosts’ task was made considerably harder in the 56th minute when they were exposed on the counter and Abramian beat one man before calmly getting the better of a one-on-one with young goalkeeper Harrison Rodgers, who was making only his second start of the season.

Bircham responded by changing personnel and formation, but the sense that it wasn’t going to be their day grew with 15 minutes remaining when Ed Canham headed against the inside of the post and skipper Matt Standen smashed the rebound over from seven yards.

Rodgers then kept his side in the game after thwarting another Chipperfield break, but the home side continued to be profligate before both sides were reduced to 10 men for the final 10 minutes.

The break Bovingdon needed came in the 82nd minute when Pritchard rose well to head home a Courtney Massay cross.

Chances continued to come and go until just before the end when Standen fired home into the top corner from a tight angle.

And the dramatic turnaround was completed five minutes into injury time when substitute Luis Fernandes played in Standen 25 yards out and his powerful low drive found the bottom corner.

“In 10 minutes the boys have gone from tables being thrown up in the air in the changing room to pats on the back. That’s the madness of football,” the drained Bovingdon boss said afterwards.

“I can’t praise them enough for that sort of comeback. To get back in that game as late as we did when completely dead and buried takes a lot of character.

“I have been involved long enough to know that now all teams can come back like that to nick a draw let alone go and win the game. These lads are a real good group. Credit to them.”

Hailing the impact of the substitutes, Bircham paid particular praise to Pritchard after his brother-in-law had scored his fourth in five games.

“He naturally want to start more games – and possibly should – but knows he will probably be on the bench most weeks as he makes massive impacts on games when he comes on like he did today,” the manager said.

“We gave a few heated words over the family dinner table sometimes, but he ends up agreeing with me in the end so it’s all good.

“Fair play to Lewis. He doesn’t sulk one bit and gets on with it as he’s desperate to be part of this team. This rubs off to the rest of the boys and is massive to the atmosphere.”

Following this evening’s game, Bovingdon will face Ware in the Aubrey Cup semi-finals on Saturday.

The other last-four clash will be between Letchworth and Belstone, who advanced with a 2-1 win at Sandridge Rovers at the weekend.

Ware went second in the table with a 3-2 victory at Bushey Sports Club.