Welwyn Garden City and Biggleswade contrived a crazy, chaotic finish to their FA Cup extra preliminary round tie at Bedford’s New Eyrie – the Citizens’ first truly competitive fixture of the season.
With a minute left, WGC looked almost certain to be exiting the competition at the first hurdle for the fourth year running, when they forced a very late corner.
From it, skipper Layne Eadie got a glancing header on it, that flicked off a home defender to beat keeper Liam Coyne for 1-1 and seemingly earn a replay.
Two minutes into five minutes of stoppage time though and substitute Jed Ejjayha found fellow replacement Lewis Jones with a pass out of defence.
Jones, in turn, played a perfectly-weighted through ball to send Lewis Taaffe clear and he kept his head and composure to shoot past Coyne and complete what seemed a massive turnaround.
In the very next move, barely a minute later, Jones got completely clear only to be pulled back by Biggleswade central defender Luke Oswick, who earned himself a red card as last man.
But the home side still managed one last attack and when Sonny Coughlin-Brown slipped the ever dangerous Adam Hunt in, Eddie Corbit brought him down just inside the area.
One-time Welwyn player Dan Bond slotted home the penalty to leave the sides tied at 2-2 after a breathless finish.
And yet, despite all the excitement and chaos of the closing minutes, a draw was just about the right result.
WGC dominated the first 45 minutes and had the better of the chances, new striker Steve Cawley bringing a good save out of Coyne and central defender Brad Gothard putting two efforts, from corners, over the bar.
Biggleswade defender Hunt, himself a former Citizen, pulled off a goal-saving tackle on Corbit when the midfielder looked certain to score and Cawley went close again, this time with a looping header that was just over the home crossbar.
So when the home side took the lead in first-half stoppage time, from a free-kick conceded by a reckless Adam Pollock tackle on the edge of the area, it was really galling for the Citizens.
Charlie Heyford drove it in, keeper Donny Green turned it away but didn’t hold it and the dangerous Hunt ran in to shoot home and see the hosts turn around, rather undeservedly, in front.
But Biggleswade more than made up for it, with their second-half showing.
They dominated the half, in much the same way WGC had in the earlier play and the visitors had keeper Green to thank for keeping them in the tie, with a trio of outstanding close-range stops.
Firstly, he made a point blank stop to prevent Biggleswade’s returned forward Alex Marsh from doubling the home lead 10 minutes after the restart.
Then midway through the half, he made another sensational stop to deny Hunt and Biggleswade what would surely have been a clinching second goal.
Finally, when home substitute Temi Akinbusoye got away from Jack Green, keeper Donny Green made a super stop with his feet to keep the deficit at 1-0.
That looked as if it was to be the final result, until the exciting, closing moments, all of which gave Marc Weatherstone’s team a second bite at winning the tie.
WGC: D.Green, Pollock (Fostyk 67), J.Green, Read (Ejjayha 46), Gothard, Eadie, Corbit, Bruno, Taaffe, Cawley, Mendes (Jones 80).
