Yate Town 1, Evesham United 1

ONLY the kitchen sink was missing in a frantic final few minutes that failed to bring United a deserved victory last Saturday, writes Mervyn Collins.

It was home goalkeeper Tony Court who prevented the visitors claiming what could have been two relegation saving points.

However, he knew little about his first effort when Andy Smith's fiercely driven strike was deflected goalwards where the ball cannoned off Court's feet for a corner.

Leon Blake's flag-kick was met by the towering Steve Duncan who saw Court produce a fabulous flying save to push the midfielder's header over the bar.

A minute later and Duncan appe-ared certain to grab the winner when he found himself in space eight yards from goal but his goalbound shot struck a defender's foot and rolled agonisingly the wrong side of the Yate goal.

It was heartbreaking stuff for the visiting contingent who again saw enough character, skill and commitment to suggest that Paul West's style of management can see the Robins reclaim top flight status should they be relegated.

Stephen Luckett saw a fifth minute header hacked off the line before excellent play from the two Blakes ended with Dean Curtis firing across the face of Court's goal.

The goalkeeper was finally beaten after 22 minutes of Evesham domination when he could only push Luckett's header from another Rob Taylor corner into the corner of his goal.

The scorer, though, limped out of the action nine minutes before the break with a recurrence of an ankle problem that will end his season and Town, boasting the best home record in the division, levelled after 41 minutes when Darren Edwards easily beat Nath-an Vaughan after neat inter-play on the edge of the penalty area.

In direct contrast to the opening stages of the first period it was the hosts who dominated after the restart and Evesham were fortunate to be still on level terms.

When the action switched to the other end the Robins found Court a major obstacle as he denied both Taylor and Leon Blake and then saw James Fox head over the former's free-kick.

Edwards spurned a second glorious chance at the other end before Fox's 75th minute left-foot volley flew a foot wide of Court's right-hand upright.

When the keeper did slip up, Dean Curtis failed to get his close-range shot on target but, when the visitors did get their sights set correctly, Court came up trumps to prevent United recording back-to-back wins for the first time at such a crucial time.

It could have even worse for West's men who would have been relegated had Paul Chenoweth not decided to go for goal when Town broke away and had spare men crying out for a pass.

Now that would have been hard to swallow in a season when there has been a wealth of hard luck stories and a frustrating dearth of fortune favouring the brave!