Tom Kinsey nets late equaliser as Earlswood Town stretch unbeaten run to ten games with draw against tenants Barnt Green Spartak
Earlswood Town 2-2 Barnt Green Spartak
Midland League, Division Two
EARLSWOOD Town stretched their unbeaten league run to ten games with an entertaining 2-2 home draw with bottom-of-the-table Barnt Green Spartak.
However, the Earls will feel that they could have bagged all three points after a second-half onslaught on their tenants’ goal.
Tom Kinsey, with his sixth of the season, levelled in the 89th minute after Mahmoud Abouelill and Randy Osei had bagged for Spartak either side of the interval following Dan Smith’s early opener.
That had sparked a frantic five minutes of injury time as the hosts attempted to snatch the points but, to their credit, Midland League Division Two basement side Barnt Green dug in to pick up only their fourth point of the season.
The Earls, playing in their sky blue away kit despite being the home side, were handed a slice of luck as early as the eighth minute when an error at the back gifted Smith the opportunity to poke into an empty net from 12 yards.
However, Spartak weren’t prepared to roll over and, in the 16th minute, Abouelill found it too easy to cut through his opponents’ defence and calmly slot past Tom Day.
With seconds of the restart, a defensive mishap allowed Barnt Green to take the lead; this time Osei capitalising to beat Day.
Yet from that moment onwards, the action pretty much belonged to the Earls as they pushed to maintain their impressive unbeaten run.
Captain Louis Bridges was left wondering how he hadn’t added his fifth of the season when he went centimetres from prodding a deflected Kinsey shot in at the far post.
As ever this season, Kinsey once again proved to be the man of the moment when he got on the end of a recycled ball from the left back into the Barnt Green box to flick his looping header into the far corner.
Substitute Harry Street could have won it deep into injury time when he pounced on a rebounded shot only to prod wide.
The Earls will now return to AFC Coventry Rangers on Saturday (2pm kick-off) in the league looking to avenge their Birmingham County FA Saturday Vase first-round defeat earlier this month.
