Brews denied by late equaliser

Premier Division DEFENDER SCORES WITH FIVE MINUTES LEFT TO EARN LOCOMOTIVE A POINT Division 1

With the snow and wet weather playing havoc with the weekend fixture list, the game of the day was in the Premier Division where leaders AFC Locomotive drew 5-5 with Brewmaster at Pitchside on the all-weather 3G pitch.

Brewmaster have been Loco’s bogey side this season – already beating the pub side in their two previous meetings – and the High Halden side would have made it a hat-trick of wins had it not been for Dan White’s late equaliser for the hosts.

Loco fielded a bare e11 which included reserve team goalkeeper Kenny Hallett and the stand-in keeper played a part in Loco’s opening goal after just 45 seconds when his clearance down the pitch was well controlled by Dan Scorer who raced forward 30 yards before placing the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the net to put the hosts 1-0 up.

The leaders doubled their lead when great work from Jason Thomas on the right saw the midfielder set up Steve Harris on the edge of the box.

Harris skipped past two defenders before firing home.

Brewmaster responded by finding the net twice themselves in quick succession. First, man-of-the-match Ben Squires-Quinn hit an effort from 30 yards out before forward James Tasker netted three minutes later to make it 2-2.

And the Brews recovery was made even sweeter after 19 minutes when Squires-Quinn notched his second goal, heading home from a corner.

The scoring didn’t stop there, though, as Loco equalised six minutes later when Harris raced on to a long ball over the top from Scorer to finish well.

Squires-Quinn then completed his hat-trick just before half-time to put Brews 4-3 ahead at half-time.

After the break, Harris scored his third of the game heading in from Robbie Greenfield’s corner to pull Loco back level for a second time.

The hosts enjoyed far more of the possession in the second-half but couldn’t find a way through to regain the lead.

With 12 minutes left, it looked like Brewmaster had snatched the win against the run of play.

Squires-Quinn played an excellent one-two with strike partner Tasker on the edge of the penalty area, beat Loco defender Mike Halpin to the ball and slotted home to put the visitors 5-4 ahead.

However, the Brews were unable to hold out. A a long ball into the box was touched on by Halpin, with just five minutes to go, for defender White to tuck the ball home and earn his side a share of the points. Martin Henry scored four times for Lolzors but still ended up on the losing side as Prince Albert ran out 6-4 winners in the only Division 1 clash of the morning.

Third-placed Albert gained their revenge from their recent cup defeat to the same opposition with four goals from Jordan Griffin and two from Stuart Watson.