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Late double blast leaves Bloods faithful stunned

7/12/2005

Lancaster City 2
Droylsden 2

AT first glance this scoreline may appear to represent a good away point for the Bloods, but the reality was much different.

Droylsden had this gamewithin their grasp, only to somehow contrive to give points away, as on many occasions this season, in the final stages of the game.

The first chance of the game came in the eighth minute when the ball fell to Tony Sullivan on the left. His shot beat Paul Phillips but skidded wide of the far post.

Droylsden countered and Terry Fearns was presented with an even better chance two minutes later, but he also could only pull the shot wide.

The game came to life four minutes after the interval when Chris Denham, who had looked Droylsden's most dangerous player, broke and slung over a knee high cross. Kevin Rapley arrived at the corner of the six- yard box and flicked the ball past 'keeper McMillan.

Droylsden's superiority should have resulted in their lead being doubled on the hour when Rapley played Fearns through on the keeper. But Fearns pulled the trigger early and dragged the ball wide of the left hand post.

Droylsden did increase their lead with seven minutes remaining when Rapley back-heeled across the face of goal, the ball running through to Fearns who turned and drove the ball into the far corner.

That should have been three points in the bag for Droylsden, but Lancaster went straight to the other end and McMahon fired through a crowded box to beat Phillips.

Droylsden defended their lead for a further five minutes, but it all went horribly wrong when another free kick was conceded on 90 minutes.

This was floated into the box where Tom Pope was waiting to finish from an acute angle.