THE EDWIN GREAVES AFC BINLEY COLUMN...

Edwin reports on a 3-3 draw away to Athletic Sparta...

"We got the game underway and struggled to cope with a Sparta side which was fired up for this game. A speculative shot in the 6th minute gave Sparta the lead when the ball somehow found its way over the line: 1-0.

Sparta grew in confidence and doubled their lead in the 28th minute when they were awarded a hotly disputed free-kick which was scored from approximately 25 yards: 2-0.

In the 30th minute a cross from Daniel Vincent was headed in by Andy Godfrey: 2-1.

Half-time: 2-1.

In the 2nd half Sparta seemed to run out of ideas as we put them under more pressure. In the 58th minute we were denied a penalty when a hand-ball was not spotted by the referee.

We continued to keep Sparta pinned into their half and levelled the score in the 72nd minute when an Andrew Godfrey cross was finished by Steven Young: 2-2.

We continued to dominate the game and wasted several chances to get ourselves in front in this game.

This came back to hurt us when on one of the few occasions Sparta managed to get out of their half, they punished us on the break in the 86th minute with another low shot and good finish: 3-2.

In the 91st minute skipper Steven Young drove forward and his cross to the back post lobbed over the Sparta goalkeeper into the net: 3-3.

Even then we still had one more opportunity to collect all three points when the ball hit Tyler Morgan but went over the target.

Full-time: 3-3.

In summing up this game:

At 2-0 down after 28 minutes against a good Sparta side I would have settled for a draw over 90 minutes, especially the way we were playing at the time.

When we worked our way back into the game at 2-2, for me there was only one team going to win this game and we had Sparta pinned into their half and wasting time.

To concede another goal against the run of play and with 4 minutes to go was so disappointing after all the effort the lads had put into this game.

But fair play to them, not only did we get another equaliser in stoppage time when a bit of luck went our way but we almost snatched a dramatic winner as well.

This is a game that on another day we could so easily have lost.

I learned a lot about my lads today and I am so pleased with what they showed me.

9 games into our season and things are coming along nicely now and I feel that this group of lads will still improve more together.

Up next for us is a home game vs Dunlop Reserves..."

Edwin Greaves, 

AFC Binley Manager