Southampton Rangers 1

North Village 1

North Village skipper Sammy DeGraff admitted his men have let their title hopes slip out of their hands after they could only manage a 1-1 draw against Southampton Rangers at Southampton Oval yesterday.

Sean Fubler's injury-time goal kept North Village's title options wide open although they no longer hold their fate in their own hands, even after cancelling out Dawud Tucker's opener.

"Both sides played well, they got the goal to put them ahead but I felt we had enough chances early on to put the match to bed," said DeGraff. "We had the better chances but it was a deserved draw.

"The Town result makes it go down to the last game and they have PHC and we have Somerset Eagles so all we can do is go out and do our best and see where that takes us."

Village went into yesterday's clash one point ahead of Dandy Town and with a victory would have moved one win away from the title.

Knowing what had to be done to get to the finish line, they looked as if they would go ahead of the hosts early in the match with Ralph Bean jr. almost opening the scoring, However, too many touches in the box took him away from goal.

Bean was the guilty party again just before the break, this time sailing his effort wide of the mark from close range with only Jason Smith in the Rangers goal to beat.

DeGraff then saw hit the root of the post and go harmlessly away from goal.

Early in the second half it was Jason Lee's turn to try his luck, only to be denied by Smith with a fine one-handed save.

They were made to pay for their missed opportunities in the 71st minute when a goalmouth scramble saw Tucker stick a boot out and bundle the ball over the line to make it 1-0.

It was all hands to the pump from then on as Village looked to get themselves back into the game.

Pierre Smith had a chance with his first touch of the ball but put his effort right into the waiting Smith.

Then, in injury time, Fubler finally stepped up to gain a precious point for the visitors.

Playing one-twos outside the area, a DeGraff back heel found its way to Fubler, who was making a run into open space, and the centre back calmly slotted home from six yards out to save Village's blushes.

With the result the title race goes into the last weekend with Dandy Town, who won 4-1 over Devonshire Colts, now holding a one-point lead.

"This is a big result against us today and us not putting away our chances is why we aren't in the driver's seat now," said DeGraff.

"We must show urgency in front of goal and really even if we win it won't matter unless Town drop points so we shot ourselves in the foot today and must now hope on help from Zebras."

Southampton Rangers: J.Smith, K.Simons, K.Tucker, A.Raynor (Bean,83), J.Charles, T.Brown, M.Williams, J.Dill, J.Caisey, D.Russell, D.Tucker (K.Smith,78).

Subs not used: J.Smith, K.Symonds, T.Flood.

North Village: J.Williams, K.Dill, D.Tankard, T.Outerbridge (Boyles, 51), S.Degraff ,T.Fray (P.Smith,81), R.Bean, J.Lee, K.Dill (V.Tankard, 67), S.Fubler, T.Watson.

Subs not used: J.Sousa,Z.Hendrickson

Referee: A.Reid.

Man of the Match: J.Smith.