Dandy Town and the Somerset Trojans played to a 1-1 stalemate in a tense encounter at St John’s Field yesterday.

In the fifth minute of play, Trojans were awarded a penalty when player-coach Kwame Steede, who replaced Jomar Wilkinson at the helm this month, handled the ball in the penalty area.

Leo Burgess took the resulting penalty kick, but his shot was brilliantly saved by Ajai Daniels, the Town goalkeeper.

With Trojans searching for another opportunity to redeem themselves from their earlier penalty miss, they were rewarded with their second spot kick in the 30th minute to make amends.

Malachi Jones, the Trojans striker, made no mistake stepping up to deposit his shot beyond the reach of the diving Daniels. Undaunted by Trojans’ strike, Town continued pressing for the equaliser but were having some difficulty with their offensive efficiency and could not locate the target.

With both teams enjoying equal times of possession of the ball throughout the remainder of the first half, those possessions could not be translated into goals.

With Trojans holding a goal advantage at the start of the second half, both sides continued to press for that elusive goal that would either get Hornets back into contention or give Trojans firm control of the game.

Town, who have been struggling in the Premier Division this season, despite being the defending champions, began playing with a bit more tempo and desperation to their game, sending their defenders on frequent overlaps along the wings.

However, time and again, their efforts either went begging because of poor execution on their parts or timely defensive stops by Trojans.

With time winding down, Trojans were poised to escape with the win. However, Hornets had a trick or two up their sleeves.

Facing an early exit from the competition, Hornets dug deeper, sending players forward in waves searching for that elusive equaliser.

They would be rewarded with a penalty for their perseverance in the 89th minute when Drewonde Bascome was tripped up in the penalty area.

Bascome cooly stepped up and administered a stinging penalty strike past Shaquille Bean, the Trojans goalkeeper, knotting the score and setting off a raucous applause by the Hornets faithful.