Second half fightback secures City point against ten-man Urchins

City recovered from two goals down at half-time to take a point off high-flying Hornchurch in an eventual match this afternoon at Cannon Clarke Stadium @ Twerton Park. A Sandat double had put the Urchins in control but he saw red between goals by Scott Wilson and Jack Batten to turn the game right around.

Hornchurch had shown their title credentials during a first half where City struggled to land a glove on the visitors. An second minute corner and neat move between Wilson and Owen Windsor gave City early hope but they fell behind on 11 minutes. Pegrum’s pass found Sandat in space and he fired past Harvey Wiles-Richards from 12 yards. Pregrum and Sandat both shot too closely to Wiles-Richards as they looked to build on their lead. Into first half stoppage time a great turn and curling shot by Sandat made it 2-0.

For all their effort City continued to fail to trouble the Hornchurch backline after the break. This changed on 58 minutes when Batten’s great ball forward allowed Reubin Sheppard to lift the ball over keeper Nasta and Wilson applied to final touch from right on the goalline. The game turned in favour of City in the 67th minute. Sandat went down injured a yard from the touchline but, as Wilson and Jordan Alves helpfully tried to lift him off the pitch, he manged to recover sufficiently to try to elbow the latter and receive a straight red card. Within five minutes of the game restarting City were level. Kieran Parselle hooked a clearing header back into the box where Batten headed home from a couple of yards out. City threw all they could at the rattled East London side but, even with ten minutes stoppage time, they couldn’t find a winning goal. However, it was the sort of battling performance that the Romans will need to repeat over the coming weeks.