Crusaders earn last minute point

Although we created, and missed, a number of chances, including that rare occurrence, a missed penalty from Mark Draycott, we got out of jail with an injury-time equalizer from Isaac Osei-Tutu which kept us in a play-off position and denied Cirencester their last faint chance of a place in the play-offs. The job is still not finished, however,although a Weymouth defeat by Poole on Tuesday would assure us of a place in the top 5 and a win over Paulton Rovers on Saturday would give us fourth place whatever happens elsewhere.
Their were plenty of familiar faces on show, Mark Draycott and Gary Horgan are former Cirencester players, whilst Ian Herring and Josh Parsons were formerly at Bulpit Lane, and it was therefore sure to be a close game, especially with both teams having promotion hopes, but the blustery wind did not help the standard of play. James Clark was unable to get a clean touch as he chased a through ball and Mark Draycott’s effort lacked the power to beat Glyn Garner, whilst, at the other end, Paul Strudley had to come quickly off his line to stop Nat Jarvis. It was the home side who opened the scoring after 25 minutes when an inswinging corner from Josh Parsons was headed in off the underside of the bar by Ian Herring. Another Draycott effort was deflected behind off a defender, but the corner came to nothing and there was then a lengthy stoppage when Matt Liddiard went down after a clash of heads, but he eventually returned, apparently no worse for wear, and there were no more goal-worthy attempts before the interval.
Alan O’Brien got away on the left but neither Draycott or Dean Stow were able to get a touch on his hard,low cross. We brought on Harry Goodger, Charlie Mpi and Isaac Ose-Tutu, but a cross from Osei-Tutu flew high and wide, before Draycott broke through again and brought a good save from Garner and the home side survived a prolonged scramble in front of goal before eventually getting the ball away.
It was not all one-way traffic and Strudley brought off a good save from Jarvis as the Centurions counter-attacked.
A finicky referee booked Horgan when the ball hit his arm as he turned away from a close-range clearance, even the Cirencester player remonstrating with the referee about the decision. With time running out, we at last had a chance when Mpi was bought down, Jacob Davidge getting a straight red for some unparliamentary language to the referee. Draycott’s penalty was close enough to Garner for the keeper to get down and save and our last chance of a point appeared to be gone, but with time already up, OseiTutu got on the end of a cross from the right and bundled the ball over the line to earn a valuable point.
Team;Strudley, Horgan, John,Rusby, Day, Pilling(Mpi), Stow (Goodger), Collins, Clark , Draycott, O’Brien(Osei-Tutu) . Subs;Boardman, Rees.