A dramatic late equaliser from Brandon Sasson saw table-toppers Raiders B drop points for only the second time this season as they drew 2-2 against Scrabble.
November 27, 2016 18:03MGBSFL DIVISION ONE
NORTH LONDON RAIDERS B 2 SCRABBLE FC 2
A dramatic late equaliser from Brandon Sasson saw table-toppers Raiders B drop points for only the second time this season as they drew 2-2 against Scrabble.
Sasson turned the ball home from close-range following excellent work from Zak McLeod to break NLR hearts.
In a match where Scrabble's Ben Law was by far the busier keeper, the visitors looked to have won it from the penalty spot until Sasson denied them at the death.
Scrabble dominated play for the first 45 minutes and took the lead through a good low shot via Zac Summerfield from outside the box which took a slight deflection on its way in to the net.
The equaliser came just in to the second half when Will Ufland lashed home a loose ball after a Danny Bloom corner.
A fantastic finish to the game saw Raiders forge ahead with a penalty from Mark Leader eight minutes from time to make it 2-1 after Law had clattered the excellent Alex Elf. This was the keeper's only blip as Law was the only thing between Scrabble and a hatful of Raiders goals in the second half as he denied Ufland three times.
But Scrabble got out of jail in stoppage time when a mazy run and cross from Zac Summerfield fell to Brandon Sassoon who made no mistake to make it 2-2 in a thrilling end to the game.
Mark Leader gave NLR the lead from the penalty spot after Ben Law clattered the excellent Alex Elf. Law was the only thing between Scrabble and a hatful of Raiders goals in the second half as he denied Ufland three times.
Scrabble manager Ray Abrahams told JC Sport: "There is no question that Raiders were the better side today, but sometimes you have to ride your luck and keep going and I'm proud of the way the lads kept plugging away at the Raiders goal right to the end of the game.
"Im just relieved that we managed to get that last-minute equaliser and Brandon kept his cool to finish and earn us a point.
"We didn't get into our usual stride today and looked a bit disjointed, but we will make sure we put that right before next week's game with Oakwood.
"This league is going to go right to the wire in terms of honours and everyone is taking points off everyone else at the top, so it will be interesting. We've had a tough start in terms of early fixtures against all the top clubs and it hasn't been an easy run of games for us, but we are still in there challenging and will be there or thereabouts at the end of the campaign."
NLR co-boss Jonathan Adelman told JC Sport: "Overall, and considering we had 11 players missing today, I'm very happy with the performance.
"Ben Sheldon was very solid in goal covering for David Simnock, and despite also missing regular starters Anthony Goodmaker, Jake Gilbert, Nicky Woolf, Si Buchler, Lewis Blitz and Marc Woolfe we put together a really good display.
"All three games against Scrabble have been very competitive and whilst it's a little disappointing not to get the three points our performance merited, we can be satisfied with taking four points from the two league games against them.
"We'll hope to be back at full strength for the game against Redbridge on December 11."