Aaron Lugo's penalty six minutes from time was enough to earn St David's an unlikely draw in the first leg of the Premier Division play-off at the National Sports Centre last night.

The St David's Warriors defender equalised after Devonshire Colts goalkeeper Jermaine Nesbitt had upended striker Angelo Cannonier in the area.

There was no doubt that it was a penalty, but it was a bitter pill for Colts to swallow after they had a clear penalty of their own turned down for a foul in exactly the same spot in the first half.

Then, Warriors defender Dano Outerbridge had tackled Qunicy Aberdeen from behind sending the Colts man sprawling. Outerbridge made no contact with the ball, and the slightly disbelieving reaction of the St David's players when the whistle didn't blow was telling.

Referee Anthony Francis was 30 yards away when the incident occured, so may not have had a good look, but his assistant referee was right on the spot and his failure to signal for a penalty was unforgiveable.

Lugo's goal marked an impressive fight back for the First Division side, who took the lead and then fell behind, but are still just 90 minutes away from playing in the top flight next season.

And while St David's boss Kameron Fox acknowledged that his side were lucky to be level, he praised his team for the manner in which they battled back.

"Sometimes referees are going to make bad calls, sometimes it's for you, sometimes it's against you," said Fox. "But hey, that's the rub of the green and I'll take it.

"We showed a lot of character, being the younger team. But it still shows us stuff that we have to work on to actually play at this level.

"It's a good thing that we came back, but there are a lot of things that we have to work on so we don't have to come from behind."

A draw was probably a fair result, because although Colts, dominated for much of the second half, St David's had the better of the first and could have scored more than Dejuan Paynter's goal five minutes before half time.

Dominique Lambert, Aaron Crockwell, and Cannonier all had good chances to score but either fired just wide, or hit the post.

The First Division side caused chaos in the Colts box with a succession of high balls challenging Nesbitt who was somewhat shorter than the St David's strikers.

In the end Nesbitt's height would count against him, as Paynter curled a shot over him from just inside the area.

Colts were much the better side in the second half however, and could have won by some distance if it wasn't for the poor finishing of Aljime Zuill.

The Colts striker conspired to miss a host of chances inside the Warriors box. Thankfully for the Premier Division side Ryan Purnell was firing on all cylinders.

Everything good that Colts did last night went through Purnell.

He reacted quickest to draw his side level when St David's failed to clear the ball soon after the re-start.

And he kept his head to calmly score his second after a fine pass from Zuill split St David's open with an hour gone.

There seemed no way back for the First Division side after that, but they kept plugging away, and were eventually rewarded for their persistance when Cannonier out-paced the Colts defence before colliding with the Nesbitt.

Kameron Fox's side may even have won it at the death, when substitute Sean Boddington raced clear, but hit his cross to close to Nesbitt with Cannonier unmarked on the back post.

Devonshire Colts: J Nesbitt, E Wilkin, J Butterfield, S Perinchief, T Foote, A Famous (O Ray, 62), Q Aberdeen, M Burch (S Burgess, 85), R Purnell, K Jones, A Zuill. Subs not used: B Robinson, M Pace, C Trott, Q Jones.

Booked: Perinchief, Aberdeen

St David's Warriors: J Minors, F Sewell, Angelo Cannonier, A Crockwell (L Minors, 70), D Outerbridge, D Paynter, A Lugo, Ankema Cannonier (S Boddington, 70), D Lambert, M Jones, O Minors. Subs not used: D Rogers, S Butterfield.

Booked: Lambert

Referee: A Francis

Man of the match: R Purnell