After having a two goal lead at half time thanks to goals from Sam Teale and George Miller, Frome seemed to take their foot off the pedal for long periods of the second half and with St Ives pulling one back in the 68th through Charlie De’ath, the visitor’s continual attacking efforts were justifiably rewarded in the third minute of injury time as Josh Dawkins shot home to share the points.
For the sixth match in a row, Frome were able to start with the same eleven players and with Josh Jeffries back to keep an eye on things, they were looking to secure the three home points before a very tough run of games that sees them play nine teams from the top ten in the next nine matches.
On a bitterly cold day with the temperature just above freezing and light snow falling, the match kicked off and Frome could easily have been in the lead within three minutes but Mike Bryant completely missed his volley from five yards as a wicked curling Jon Davies corner found him unmarked in the danger area.
St Ives immediately showed that they posed a threat with a neat, incisive fast moving attack that resulted in a shot across the face of goal, but it was Frome who took the lead in the 10th minute as Teale slid in to toe poke a Jon Davies free kick into the far corner with Tim Trebes seeming to think that the ball was missing the far post as he followed it’s path across the face of goal.
Frome went very close to a second in the 20th as Bryant thumped a 15 yard shot against the base of the post after Davies had cleverly played the ball back to him, but St Ives then counter attacked with pace and only a great saving tackle from Teale denied them an equaliser.
With St Ives continuing to look good on the counter, Frome they doubled that lead in the 28th as Davies found Ollie Knight on the left and his ball into the box allowed George Miller to turn and shoot into the top corner from the edge of the box to give Frome a 2-0 lead, and with Davies shooting just past the post in the 43rd after good work from Bryant, the scoreline remained the same at half time.
However, Frome were a little slow to get going in the second half and Kyle Phillips twice had to be alert to deny the visitors in the first five minutes and it took until the 57th before they finally got into their stride as Knight lobbed Trebes, only for a defender to head off the line.
Chris Gregan replaced Kris Miller due to injury on the hour mark, and despite Frome launching sporadic raids, St Ives seemed to be getting more and more of the territory and possession, and the pressure told in the 68th as Phillips dived to push away a shot only for the ball to be worked back in from the right and centre back De’ath was on hand to shoot home from close range to make the score 2-1.
After the visitors had the ball in the net in the 72nd only for the goal to be ruled out for offside, substitute James Fitzgibbon went very close for Frome as he dispossessed a defender and shot just over the bar from an acute angle.
With St Ives going close again in the 76th and bringing a save from Phillips, followed by a shot that flew across the face of the goal, Frome really needed to start playing in their opponents half more, and with Darren Jeffries replacing striker Mike Bryant in the 83rd, they started to do that with the midfield now full of players who could run with the ball and cause problems, and there now seemed to be no danger of conceding and more likelihood of a third goal from Frome.
However, nobody had bothered to inform St Ives of that, and the third minute of injury time saw a final mass attack thrown at the Frome goal, and despite a good Phillips save and a couple of blocks and clearances off the line, Josh Dawkins was on hand to shoot home from close range to give the visitors a probably justified share of the points.
Jon Davies was awarded his third H&B Tyres Man of the Match Award in a row by John Scott of John Scott Builders Ltd, and once again his delivery of the ball from free kicks and corners caused all sorts of problems for defenders.
