Fairford rescue a point with stoppage time leveller at Longlevens
Longlevens and Fairford had to settle for a point a-piece thanks to a 1-1 draw at Saw Mills.
Danny Way’s injury time effort cancelled out Cam Williams’ first half penalty, as both sides reluctantly had to settle for a result that does neither any favours.
Longlevens went into the game needing as many points as possible from their final six league games to secure their Hellenic Premier survival, whilst Fairford also needed as many wins as possible in their final five games to try and gate crash the play-off party.
But the point leaves Levens only six points clear of the drop zone and Fairford now 11 points away from extending their season.
The game was overshadowed by a bewildering refereeing performance, with both sides left upset with 90 minutes of questionable decisions.
Both sides were furious at the break after the key moment of the half saw the hosts awarded a penalty following a Luke Hitchman handball on the line.
Hitchman was only booked, leaving the hosts unhappy, whilst there were question marks as to whether it was actually handball.
Somehow, the official got it totally wrong but awarding a penalty and failing to reduce the visitors to ten.
Prior to that both sides had cancelled each other out, with Shiyak Sutherland and Shaun O’Connor firing wide with the only two shots of the first 25 minutes.
Following Cam Williams stepping up to convert from 12 yards, Fairford had a couple of speculative long range efforts fly wide through Danny Way and Tom Chamberlain.
Just before the break, it chould have been 2-0, as Kane Winman’s long ball forward bounced through and Sam Kelly beat Ben Mitchell to the ball, but toe poked his effort just wide.
Following the interval, both sides again cancelled each other out as the game continued to be a battle.
A stop start half wasn’t helped with a number of injuries and substitutions.
Fairford Captain, Jamal Lawrence, was booked for running after a long ball and running into Winman for no reason – with the Levens keeper trying to initiate a reaction to turn the card into a red.
Longlevens should have made it 2-0 with twenty minutes to go, but after Ryan Williams headed a free kick back across goal, Cam Williams was unable to turn home from close range.
Levens defender Dan Roddis was putting in a Man of the Match display but unfortunately pulled up with a hamstring injury, seemingly cramp, and had to be replaced as the match ticked into injury time.
And Fairford got their leveller after Lawrence held up a throw in before seeing his shot blocked, but the ball fell for Way to steer into the bottom corner.
Longlevens’ attentions now turn to a huge six-pointer with Lydney Town on Wednesday night, whilst Fairford now don’t have a game until they welcome Roman Glass St George to Cinder Lane on 18 March.
Longlevens: Winman, Beardsell, Byard, Roddis, R Williams, Kelly, C Williams, O’Connor, New, Corson, Sutherland
Subs: Knight, Marszalek, Spencer, Mason, Haswell
Fairford Town: Mitchell, Blyth, Haswell, Way, Hitchman, Davidson, Edwards, Chamberlain, Lawrence, Smedley, Blacker
Subs: Lewis, Bradbury, Bamana, Rawlings, Hall
C Martin Roofing Man of the Match – Dan Roddis (Longlevens)
READ MORE: Check out the list of Saturday’s results in and around Gloucestershire right here
