LEAGUE leaders Portland United were left stunned on Saturday after Laverstock handed the Dorset side a first league defeat since August.

First half goals from Rob Gallagher and Archie Lovegrove stretched Lavvy’s unbeaten home run to 17 games — keeping them level with second placed Amesbury Town.

It was a blustery day at the Dell and it took just eight minutes for Gallagher to open the scoring against a Portland defence which had conceded just 13 goals this term.

His well-timed run behind the Portland defence was picked out superbly by Russ Jones with Gallagher’s two-touch finish enough to sneak past the on-rushing Lillington in the visitors' goal.

Laverstock continued on the front foot, forcing their opponents into a series of rushed clearances and misplaced passes.

The second came after 25 minutes when Adam Jones took a sublime touch from a high ball into the box, whipping the ball into Lovegrove who got in front of his man to smash the ball past the helpless keeper.

Portland’s attempts to get back into the game were met by a resilient Lavvy defence, once again marshalled well by skipper Phil Morgan and keeper Alexis Aguer.

Co-manager Robbie Lakeman said. “This was a complete team performance. We spoke about taking our chances and knew that would be important.

“You can see why Portland are up there at the moment, they are a big strong side with quality in areas and I’m sure they are a different proposition on their own patch but our home form speaks for itself. They would of had to have played to the top of their levels to take anything away from here.”