Top-of-the-table Manakau started strongest and opened the scoring when Paul Kulhavy slotted a through ball to Gavin Saunders, and Saunders delivered a perfect cross to the back post for Mike Urlich to head home.
But Levin had a spark about their play and equalised two minutes later when Tony Sheridan cut inside from the left wing and hit a shot from the edge of the box that squeezed under Manakau keeper Paddy Sannazzaro for the equaliser.
And five minutes later Levin had taken the lead when a deep curling free-kick from Justin Greig took an unfortunate deflection off Kimbal McHugo and flew into the goal just inside the far post.
Manakau searched hard for an equaliser before halftime, with Atain Halley close on several occasions, while Kulhavy hit the crossbar with a close range effort and James Hoskins was denied by a great save from Levin keeper Keegan McLaclian just before halftime.
In the second half Manakau did finally get a reward for the efforts, with Hoskins and Saunders combining to create a chance that Urlich snapped up with a quality finish to level the scores at 2-2.
Unfortunately, Jamie Allcock picked up an injury and had to come off at that stage, a real blow to Manakau as the big man had led the forward line well, and the Manakau substitutes bench was rather thin this weekend.
The game turned into a real end-to-end affair, with chances at both ends, and the winning goal was a stunning strike with Joel Nugteren controlling a pass 25 yards out and hitting a fierce curling shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net to give Levin a 3-2 lead.
Manakau poured forward to try and rescue a point with 10 minutes remaining, but despite a couple of close efforts the determined defending from Levin ensured that it was the home side that would take all the points.
Levin’s player of the day was young keeper Keegan McLaclian, while Manakau nominated their midfield pairing of Mike Urlich and Paul Kulhavy as their standout players.
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