Another late show from Shariff rescues a point for 10-men St Neots Town

St Ives Town and St Neots Town produced a spectacle that was strangely engrossing and largely entertaining despite quality football predictably being in short supply due to difficult conditions at soggy ProEdge Westwood Road.

The final 1-1 scoreline was probably a fair reflection of a Southern League Premier Division clash in which neither side did enough to win or deserved to lose.

It was a point that both managers would more than likely have willingly accepted at 7pm after setting eyes on a pudding of a pitch. One particularly sandy patch across a penalty was a hazard which would have caused the world’s leading golfers, let alone a set of non-league footballers, extreme difficulty.

The fact visiting boss Matt Clements was still chuffed with a share of the spoils just after 9.30pm was completely understandable given his side played with 10 men for more than two-thirds of an attritional and energy-sapping battle following the dismissal of Johnny Herd for collecting two obvious cautions – both received for fouls on St Ives dangerman Tom Knowles - in the opening 24 minutes.

Nabil Shariff’s 82nd minute leveller, which found its way into the net through the legs of St Ives goalkeeper Tim Trebes, was a reward for the resolve the visiting set of Saints showed in such a tough predicament.

Source The Hunts Post