Football
Battling Sporting salvage a point

Buy photos » Chrisi Conway celebrates making it 2-2 against Earlswood Town at the Victoria Ground on Monday. Picture by Andre Roberts.

BROMSGROVE Sporting twice fought back from behind to secure a 3-3 Midland Combination Premier Division draw at home against Earlswood Town on Saturday.

The Rouslers, who travel to early pacesetters Walsall Wood tomorrow (3pm), trailed 2-0 and 3-2 but showed plenty of grit and determination to claim a point thanks to Chrisi Conway’s 82nd minute goal and almost went on to win it through the unlikeliest of sources when keeper Reece Francis’ long clearance almost caught his opposite number Neil Leach by surprise.

After a quiet opening the contest was brought to life in the 12th minute when Sam Wills hit the bar for the visitors whilst at the other end Jon Rogers saw a fierce shot saved and the follow up effort was cleared off the line.

Earlswood gradually started to look the sharper of the two sides, proving quicker to the ball in the middle of the park than a Sporting side who were missing regular midfielders James Turk and James Blake.

It came as no real surprise when the visitors took a 25th minute lead as Sporting failed to clear their lines and Wills scored from just inside the box.

Three corners in quick succession failed to bring any joy for Sporting whilst debutant keeper Francis made an excellent 32nd minute save at the other end to keep the deficit to one.

A brighter start to the second half for the hosts saw Rogers twice get behind Earls’ defence, only for his pull-back to be cleared on both occasions.

Earlswood went further ahead with their first attack of the second half when Sporting’s defence failed to clear properly and Wills sidefooted his second of the game.

Youngster Jovan Blake-Walker was introduced for Sporting, fresh from scoring five times for the Reserves on Saturday, and he made an immediate impact as the hosts looked to get themselves back into the game.

His bustling, committed style of play gave Earls more problems than they had encountered all afternoon and the pressure led to Conway winning a 72nd minute penalty which Joe Brookes confidently converted.

And Sporting were level within three minutes when Blake-Walker released Conway to fire past Leach.

Parity did not last long though as Wills went straight down the other end and completed his hat-trick after more poor defending but their was more drama to come.

Conway equalised for a second time with eight minutes left before Francis’ long clearance took a huge bounce and was only just pushed away for a corner by Leach.

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