Stratford Town Reserves come from two goals down to rescue point at Racing Club Warwick U23s

AFTER a lacklustre and disjointed first-half performance that saw them two goals down at the break, Stratford Town Reserves eventually found their ‘mojo’ and fought back to secure a 2-2 draw away at Racing Club Warwick U23s, reports Richard Price.

In a fixture that often serves up drama and with both teams jockeying for position in the upper echelons of the Midland League Reserve Division, it was one-way traffic from the start.

Time and again Stratford saw their efforts to string moves together break down, while Racing kicked into gear early, and when Asad Ssemwogerere timed his run precisely to beat the Stratford offside trap, he latched onto a through ball and guided it past keeper Cal Monaghan for 1-0.

With Stratford still feeding on scraps, Racing extended their lead when a ball into the box struck Cian Hodson’s hand and the resulting penalty from Connor Mort was duly despatched.

To their credit, Stratford’s heads didn’t drop and when a searching ball through the middle from Sacha Everard found Zidan Sutherland, he smashed it so hard past the Racing 'keeper that even the latter’s attempt to palm it away wasn’t enough to divert it.

The second half was a different story, with Stratford bursting out of the blocks. Sutherland fizzed a ball across the box from the right and Jake Collins went agonisingly close to equalising, before Dan Atkins latched onto a loose clearance from a corner to guide his header into the bottom corner and level the scores.

From then on most of the action took place in the Racing half, with Zak Tellyn and Henry Kroner directing operations, although Monaghan pulled off an outstanding fingertip save to keep his team in the hunt.

Sutherland and Odine Brown rattled the woodwork and drew save after save, but the deadlock could not be broken.

In the dying seconds Tom Price executed a perfectly timed tackle on the penalty spot to deny Racing a last-minute winner and ensure the game ended in stalemate.