Bermuda Hogges 2

Western Mass Pioneers 2

Omar Shakir salvaged a point for Bermuda Hogges against Western Mass Pioneers with a spectacular injury-time goal to bring to an end to his team's five game losing streak.

The skipper's left-foot piledriver was a rare piece of individual brilliance in an otherwise forgettable match that offered little in the way of bums off seats excitement at the National Sports Centre (NSC) on Saturday night.

Considering their recent run of miserable form, though, it's unlikely coach Kyle Lightbourne would have been overly concerned whether of not his Hogges players succeeded in entertaining a sparsely filled NSC.

Their overriding mission would have been to stop the rot having not picked up a point in more than a month, and at least Shakir's 25-yard rocket in the dying seconds offers a portion of hope that Hogges can still end the season with some pride in tact.

Despite the draw Hogges remain at the foot of the table, but with seven matches remaining a lower mid-table finish is still not beyond realms of possibility.

If that lofty goal is to be achieved they will need to play a darn site better than they did against an ordinary Pioneers side who were arguably even less creative and imaginative on the night than Hogges.

Lightbourne's men made an encouraging start to the game with Antwan Russell forcing a save from goalkeeper James Thorne, but fell behind shortly after when Almir Barbosa headed home from Yan Klukowski corner.

Hogges regained parity just before half-time when Thorne could only parry Russell's free-kick into the path of Johnny Ball who made no mistake from close range.

The second-half continued in a similar vein as the first with misplaced passes, lapses in concentration, and defensive errors characterising both team's play.

Domico Coddington almost put Hogges ahead with a diving header which was pushed around the post, but it seemed as though they were destined to slip to a sixth straight defeat when Barbosa took advantage of poor defending to fire Pioneers into a late lead.

However, that was before Shakir took matters into his own hands and tried his luck from long range with a sweet strike which at least gave Hogges' smattering of supporters something to cheer.

Bermuda Hogges: N.Burgess, K.Richards, J.Ball (J.Peniston 75), O.Shakir, D.Cox, D.Ming, S.DeGraff (S.Darrell 75), S.Astwood (L.Dill 75), B.Bean, A.Russell, D.Coddington (L.Holder 75)

Subs not used: J.Williams, T.Russell, J.Smith

Man-of-the-match: O.Shakir