A 94th-minute goal by Sheppey keeper Joshua Glover denied Deal all three points in a thrilling game at Sheerness on Tuesday night.
With Sheppey trailing 3-2 Glover raced up for a corner and headed the ball home to leave the Hoops rueing having wasted three clear cut chances to “kill” the match off after they had fought back from a 2-1 half-time deficit.
Derek Hares’ side made a great start, going ahead after just 10 minutes through Andy Miller. The midfielder marked his 200th “starting” appearance for the club by converting a penalty after Joe Reeves had been brought down by Glover in the box.
But Sheppey were the better side in the first half and two goals inside four minutes from Ian Batten (21mins) and Hicham Akhazzan (24mins) put them in front at the interval.
The Hoops then made a tactical change at half-time, switching to a 4-4-2 formation and bringing on Ben Chapman in place of Danny Smith, and it did the trick as they dominated the second period with some of their best football of the season.
Two goals from Jack Paxman (69 and 71mins) put Deal back in front and they then created and missed three more excellent chances while at the end other end keeper James Tonkin made one brilliant save before being beaten by his Sheppey counterpart in the dying seconds.
Hoops’ assistant manager Steve King “tweeted” afterwards: “Proud of our boys again tonight, (they) showed great character but got to make sure we finish the job off to get the points a performance merits. Loads to work on and we won’t stop!”
Deal: Tonkin, Paxman, D Smith (Chapman 46), Bigginton, K Smith, Hark, Scott, Butcher, Wilson, Reeves (Coyne 75), A Miller (Foster 87).
2 Responses
No disgrace in getting a draw but a win would have been better?
As the saying goes” We go again” on Saturday against Whitstable at the Belmont.
Looking forward to a good game(weather permitting?)
It was a great game of two halves really.
Although Deal went 1-0 up early on through an Andy Miller penalty,Sheppey controlled the first half and went in at half time 2-1ahead.
But as was explained Deal really spiced things up with the changes and controlled the second half and had chances to really put the game to bed.
The team can be proud of the performance against a good side and were extremely unlucky not to get the win they deserved.
How was the clock showing 94 +mins when there were only supposed to be 3 mins added on God only knows.
A point shared in the end thanks to there goalie equalizing with a header.
Have to regroup for Saturday but the team did their best.
Come on Deal.!!!!