Melbourn 2 Fowlmere 2

MELBOURN were delighted with a point after a below-par display against a youthful Fowlmere side on Saturday.

It was a typical derby game at The Moors with plenty of gust and thunder on display and Melbourn dominated the opening minutes and took the lead inside 15. A long clearance by Mark Ferrari was poorly judged by the Fowlmere defence and Dom Holt anticipated well to find himself clean through. Holt showed great poise to finish crisply and it looked as though Melbourn would dominate proceedings.

However, Melbourn simply stopped performing and Fowlmere came back at them with determination and vigour and within five minutes of the opener, Fowlmere could have found themselves in front but failed to convert two free headers.

Midway through the half Melbourn thought they had the decisive second goal. Some fine play lead to Michael Wagstaff nodding a deep ball across goal and Kris Watters who looked to have finished a fine move with an athletic diving header only to be beaten tenuously by the lineman’s flag.

The second half was a different affair as Fowlmere came at Melbourn who failed to deal with the pace and movement of their front three. Melbourn failed to clear a long-throw early on and after the ball pin-balled in the six yard box before the away forward toe-poked home the equaliser.

Melbourn were shell-shocked and the equaliser gave all momentum to Fowlmere who took the lead 10 minutes later when their forward cut inside and fired a shot which went in off the far post.

However, with five minutes to go, Melbourn at last started to show their quality and Fowlmere succumbed to sustained pressure. A fine ball released Jason Gray in the inside left channel and as he crossed to the far post, Chadwick made amends for an earlier miss by adjusting himself cleverly to hook home the equaliser in the final minutes.

It was perhaps not deserved by Melbourn, but they have again shown they can dig deep to grind out results.

Next up are Swavesey Institute and Melbourn will need to be much improved to get the victory.

Melbourn: Ferrari; Patman, A Gray, Bryan, Morris; Hassen (Edwards), J Gray, Staley, Wagstaff; Watters (Chadwick), Holt (Hill)