Southampton Rangers 3

Dandy Town Hornets 2

Super-sub Herbie Dillas struck twice in the second half as Southampton Rangers came from behind to beat Dandy Town Hornets at Southampton Oval yesterday.

The home side were trailing to Raymond Beach's second goal of the game when Dillas entered the fray in the 65th minute, and he dragged Rangers level just four minutes later.

Travis Wilkinson, who was at the heart of everything good that Rangers did yesterday, played the ball into the box, and Dillas reacted quicker than the defenders around him to poke the ball home from five-yards out.

The visitors had been in front for less than five minutes and was the second time in the game they had thrown away the lead, after Beach had scored the first goal of the game in the 51st minute.

Up until that point the match had been a pretty uninspiring affair, with neither side creating very much. In truth neither team held onto the ball long enough to really threaten, and when some space was created the final ball invariably failed to beat the first defender.

Of the two however, Dandy Town had looked the better side and deservedly took the lead when a mix-up in the Rangers defence allowed Beach time to fire the ball past Rangers goalkeeper Jason Smith.

The lead lasted exactly 10 minutes, before Anthony Rocker side-footed his team level from the edge of the penalty area. Although Rocker's shot went through a crowd of players, Hornets goalkeeper Kejon Sampson should have done better.

Beach and Dillas traded goals before Wilkinson unpicked the Hornets' defence for a final time, found Morricko Iris unmarked on the edge of the area, and his first time pass allowed Dillas the easiest of finishes.

The game ended in controversial circumstances when Hornets thought they had won a penalty deep into injury time, when midfielder Antoine Russell fell over in the box. Contact, if there was any, was minimal, and Russell might consider himself lucky not to have been booked.

In the end the difference between the two sides was Dillas, and Hornets' inability to concentrate at crucial moments.

Southampton Rangers: J.Smith, K.Simmons, D.Charles, A.Rocker, J.Charles, T.Brown, J.Dill, T.Wilkinson (sub: J.Bean, 90), K.Smith (sub: R.Lowe, 65), M.Iris, T.Flood, (sub: H.Dillas, 65). Subs not used: M.Williams, K.Symonds.

Booked: Iris, Wilkinson.

Dandy Town: K.Sampson, E.Signor, D.Signor, K.Lathan, M.Campbell, J.Watson (sub: L.Tucker, 75), L.Dill (sub: J.Dickinson, 60), A.Russell, D.Ming, R.Beach, H.Wolfe. Subs not used: S.Brown, G.Butterfield, S.Darrell.

Booked: Lathan, Signor.

Man of the match: H.Dillas (Southampton Rangers)

Referee: R Knight