Kings Langley travel to Tiverton Town on Saturday with their Evo-stik Southern Premier Division South play-off hopes in their own hands after coming from behind to beat Hartley Wintney 2-1 on Tuesday night.

Steve Conroy’s side capitalised on their game in hand to maximum effect as Stevie Ward’s superb winner five minutes from the end of normal time ensured the home side moved into the top five, three points clear of Poole Town with six matches left to play.

The match itself was diametrically opposed to the dour 1-0 home victory over Wimborne Town three days previously and was a high-octane display of fast flowing, attacking football played at a ferocious pace from beginning to end.

With Gary Connolly and Mitchell Weiss unavailable, Dean Hitchcock came in at right-back and Ward returned on the right wing with Andronicos Georgiou partnering Rene Howe up front.

Hartley put their hosts under pressure from the off with Callum Adebiyi making an acrobatic clearance and Alexandro Albert heading just over, while Jorell Johnson threw himself in to block a goalbound shot.

The pace of Salhin Abubakar and the constant pressing of the whole team kept Kings at full stretch, but they seemed to have weathered the storm when the visitors took the lead on 35 minutes as Michael Campbell got between two Kings defenders to head home a Mitchell Parker cross.

The first half seemed to have passed in a flash, testament to the intriguing contest between the two village sides, but Kings came out with far more purpose after the break and were level within five minutes.

A routine pass to Georgiou on the right saw him seemingly boxed in with few options for a cross, so he turned inside, ran across and then at the defence and unleashed a swerving shot into the far corner of the net to stun the visitors and lift the home crowd.

The game continued to flow from end to end as both sides went all out for the winner and Campbell broke with purpose, put the ball round the outcoming Alex Tokarczyk, only to see Johnson surge past him to deflect the ball round the post.

It was noticeable that Hartley were tiring, but Kings, who had made the slower start, still seemed full of running and sealed the three points with another sublime goal five minutes from the end.

A glorious 40-yard diagonal cross-field pass from Howe fell into the path of Ward who took it in his stride to unleash a powerhouse strike into the same top corner.

It was a fitting end to what was probably the best game of football seen at the Sadiku Stadium this season.

Kings Langley: Tokarczyk; Hitchcock, Johnson, Adebiyi, O’Keefe; Ward, Cook, Smith, Putman; Howe, Georgiou. Subs not used: Coldicott-Stevens, Collier, Toiny-Pendred, Syme.