Frome Town suffered late heartbreak as Sholing fought back at the death to earn a point.
The BA11 side, playing with ten men for an hour, responded excellently, going 1-0 up in the 78th minute through an unbelievable Curtis Hutson strike. Despite battling through a series of questionable officiating decisions, the Robins were seconds away from three huge points, but the Boatmen struck back in the 95th minute, securing themselves a point at home.
Confidence was high in the Robins’ camp, buoyed by a 4-1 Somerset Cup win against Brislington, and that confidence showed in the early stages as the visitors controlled possession. However, the hosts had the first shot on goal in the 5th minute, as Daniel Mason’s swerving shot forced Kyle Phillips into an impressive stop.
Matt Wood went into the book in the 16th minute – a fair decision, though the second one was more contentious. Before that incident however, the away side countered through Rex Mannings, who skilfully beat a couple of defenders before slipping Zak Drew through, who had his shot well saved and while the rebound didn’t quite fall for Archie Ferris, it did reach Albie Hopkins, whose powerful effort was blocked out for a corner.
Wood’s second yellow card followed 15 minutes later and appeared to be an incredibly harsh decision but even with the massive disadvantage, the game was still fairly even right until just before the break, where Bradley Targett couldn’t capitalise on a golden chance as he received the ball in the box but couldn’t fire past Phillips.
The Hampshire side came out the blocks second-half extremely quickly, working the ball forward and firing just over just ten seconds into the half. They then somehow didn’t take the lead in the 53rd minute after a miss from close range.
Ferris then got booked in the 57th minute for fairly challenging the keeper to the ball, and just two minutes later Pierce Mitchell went close. After a free kick, the ball fell to Drew who sliced his effort straight into the air, which was punched clear Ross Worner, but only as far as Mitchell whose tricky first-time half volley went a whisker wide.
One minute after that, Sholing were awarded a soft penalty after Joe Budd was alleged to have fouled in the box, luckily Mason struck his penalty well wide of the left-hand post.
Frome were so close to taking the lead in the 67th minute, when Hopkins was played through and bought down; although the ball landed to Ferris who would have had the simplest of tasks of finishing into an empty net, the referee blew his whistle and booked Hopkins for a dive.
Adding to Frome’s challenges, Ferris was forced off with an injury four minutes later after rolling his ankle, but substitute Hutson, turned out to be the hero, as he fired past Worner from some distance out eight minutes after coming on, setting up a tense last 15 minutes.
The entire side worked extremely hard throughout the game but couldn’t quite see it over the line as a simple ball forward found Seung Yang who fired home right at the death.
While the result was a tough one to take, under the circumstances it’s a point gained, and we’ll be looking to build on this gritty performance next week as we return to Badgers Hill to take on Winchester City and we’ll need a bumper crowd to push the lads on once again!
Match reports by Harrison Richards
