Evo-Stik Southern, West

Shortwood United 1 Yate Town 1

YATE Town took a point in their Evo-Stik Southern, West clash at Shortwood United on Saturday in the last seconds.

The opening 20 minutes of this encounter was very scrappy, on a pitch that started to cut up early.

Yate Town had the ball in the net as Adam Price’s free-kick found Nick Peare’s head, but the officials deemed there had been an infringement.

And then Yate began to try to get the ball down and play their football on the ground, but all too often the quality of the final ball was lacking.

On 40 minutes, from their first meaningful attack, the hosts took the lead.

The build-up was fashioned on the left and the ball fed into Will Hawes eight yards out, who turned his marker to squeeze a shot between Bluebells goalkeeper Harvey Rivers’ outstretched right hand and the post.

On 55 minutes, Yate created a chance from the left flank for Ross Langworthy, arriving at pace into the six yard box but he skewed his first time effort wide.

Then Shortwood broke with speed and could have nicked a second goal to put themselves firmly in command but for a brilliantly timed tackle from Theo Llewellyn on the onrushing home striker.

Yate made changes to try and affect the game, and soon became encamped in the opposition half.

After a patient period of possession play, Peare collected the ball from 25 yards out and unleashed a rocket that crashed back off the bar.

The visitors continued to press, and after Shortwood were unable to clear their lines, the ball sat up for Steve Davies.

He was about to pull the trigger but was denied by a superb defensive block and from the resulting corner, Peare’s goalbound header was cleared off the line.

As the clock ticked down, Rivers came up for set-pieces. Price clipped the bar with a measured curling effort, and Davies brought out a fine save from the home keeper.

Into the fourth minute of added time, the home rearguard was eventually broken.

With the ball pinging around in the box, Ben Brooks gratefully slammed in a half-volley from 10 yards as the ball sat up nicely for him.

There was barely time for a restart before the final whistle blew for a 1-1 draw.

After staging a second-half onslaught, Yate, to their credit, kept going and eventually got the least that they deserved, dramatically with virtually the last kick.