A dramatic first game of 2017 saw honours even at Butlin Road – but the result of the clash between Rugby Town and Chasetown FC could have been any score!
The visiting Scholars opened the scoring on the half hour after Ryan Wynter slid the ball into the path of Mitch Piggon who drilled a low shot past Dan Jezeph.
Within minutes, Piggon almost doubled the lead with a powerful shot that struck the inside of the post and bounced to safety.
The Scholars deservedly added to their lead just five minutes into the second half as Wynter broke clear and drew the keeper at the near post before picking out Jack Langston who had the easiest of close range tap ins.
On the hour though, Rugby got their way back into the game with a Levi Rowley goal that fortuitously found its way into the net after a massive deflection.
Both sides were reduced to ten men in the 80th minute after an altercation in the penalty area which saw Rugby Town’s Anthony Charles and Chase skipper James Dance shown red.
With Chasetown already fielding a makeshift defence at the start, losing Dance saw Wynter drop into the back line and Rugby found a way through the Scholars defence to level in the 87th minute via David Kolodynski’s effort.
The drama wasn’t over there though. Aaron Moses-Garvey was felled for a penalty and then saw his own spot kick superbly saved by Curtis Pond.
Then, deep into stoppage time, Seb Lake-Gaskin could easily have gone down for a penalty at the near post but squeezed the ball through to fellow sub Pierce Kiembi and his effort was poked goalwards – but somehow Jezeph clawed it off the line before the whole ball had crossed.