King's Lynn 3 Stocksbridge Park Steels 3
24th August 2013
King's Lynn Town threw away victory from the jaws of defeat in a dramatic afternoon at The Walks.
A crazy last few minutes, which had more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel, saw the Linnets fight back from two goals down to lead 3-2 in the fifth minute of injury time against a side tipped to be strugglers before the start of the new season.
But in one final twist, Stocksbridge, who had goalkeeper Ben Scott sent-off in the second minute of added time, scored right at the death to take home a share of the spoils.
Stocksbridge took the lead after 14 minutes when Alex Callery and Chris White combined for Ben Turner to open the scoring.
The visitors doubled their advantage 12 minutes into the second half when a smart swivel by Nathan Joynes saw him curl the ball past the helpless Danny Gay.
Lynn pulled a goal back midway through the half when a George Thomson corner was met by the head of Dan Jacob.
Jacob took his goal tally to five in two games when he prodded home to equalise four minutes later.
Stocksbridge's Scott saw red for raising his foot at home substitute Sam Mulready, but fellow sub Steve Spriggs blasted the resulting spot-kick wide at the start of a frantic finale.
Lynn thought they had the game won when a mazy run and centre by Jordan Yong was converted by Mulready deep into injury time.
But Stocksbridge refused to be beaten themselves and there was still time for Lewis Akeister to nod a deep cross past Gay at his back stick to earn the visitors a dramatic point.
Lynn: Gay, R Clarke, Yong, Lee (Spriggs 68), Gulliver, Bunting (Mulready 56), Hall, Quigley, Thomson, Tolley (E. Clarke 80), Jacob. Subs (not used): Watson and Fryatt.
Scorers: Jacob 67, 74, Mulready 90+3.
Stocksbridge: Scott, Royles, Travis, Swirad, Senior, Callery, Bettney (Akeister 68), Knowles, White, Joynes (South 89), Turner. Subs not used: Davies, Lipka, Denton.
Booked: White, Turner, Bettney, Knowles.
Scorers: Turner 14, Joynes 57, Akeister 90+6.
Sent-off: Scott.
Attendance: 617.