St George’s 4 X-Roads 4

X-Roads made the most of an extra man to score three late goals and draw with St George’s in a thrilling Dudley Eve Trophy match at Bernard Park last night.

St George’s defender Cameron Neal was given his marching orders for a second bookable challenge ten minutes from time when his team were 4-1 up before goals from Paul Simons, Aaron Spencer and Tymon Daniels brought X-Roads a point.

X-Roads coach Farid El Karfa was delighted with his squad’s resilience.

“We had our challenges with absences and players out injured so I’m really pleased with the way my team showed character,” he said.

“We didn’t give up even when we were 4-1 down and I’m really proud of my team for fighting back in that manner.

St George’s opened the scoring six minutes before half time and against the run of play. X-Roads failed to pick up Kashe Hall following a corner and the St George’s captain curled a beautiful effort over a motionless Kamran Harvey.

X-Roads finally found the goal their dominance deserved, equalising just four minutes later when Paul Simons glanced a Daniels free-kick into the bottom corner, but they switched off again just before the break, with Blaiz Hall squaring for older brother Kashe to restore the lead for St George’s.

Colts would score two quick goals after the interval through Gibbons and Jonas Schroder to knock the confidence of X-Roads, but the team in purple and black never stopped working. Simons cut back for Aaron Spencer on the edge of the box, and he rattled the crossbar to pick the side up.

After Neal was sent off on the 80th minute, quick passing between Khamori Brangman and Spencer saw the latter feed Simons for his second of the night. Then Daniels cut the lead to one a minute later with a thunderbolt from 25 yards, before Spencer himself fired low past Troy Hall to give Warriors an improbable point.

GOALS

St George’s: K Hall 39, 45+2; Gibbons 57; Schroder 59

X-Roads: Simons 43, 81; Daniels 82; Spencer 85

TEAMS

St George’s (4-2-3-1): T Hall Jr 6 – J Bassett 6 (sub: J Minors 72min), J Schroder 7, C Neal 5, N Paynter 6 – L Evans 6, K Hall 8 – I Gibbons 7, M Trott 6 (sub: A Heyliger 72), B Hall 7 – J Dickinson 6 (sub: M Simmons 72). Substitutes not used: I Greaves, W Phipps, M Tucker. Booked: Neal, Sent off: Neal.

X-Roads (4-1-4-1): K Harvey 7 – A Cajee 5 (sub: L Simons, 68 5), C Smith 7, E Abranches 7, T Dill 5 – T Daniels 7 – A Hidalgo 6 (sub: A O’Loughlin 40, 6), K Brangman 6, A Spencer 7, J Lottimore 5 (sub: J Sousa 58, 6) – P Simons 8. Booked: Cajee.

Referee: A Francis