Late drama as Stratford Town Youth draw with Bromsgrove Sporting

SURELY no other game at the MoodChimp Stadium this season will have a more dramatic finish than Stratford Town Youth’s opening MFYL Premier Division South fixture against Bromsgrove Sporting on Thursday evening, writes Bryan Hale.

Trailing 2-1 as the match headed into the 90th minute, Town thought that they had snatched a point when Dan Parvin’s left wing cross was turned in by 15-year-old Jack Ballinger.

Five minutes later with the game already deep into added time, it seemed that they had come from behind to claim a spectacular win when last term’s leading scorer Dylan Parker rifled in his second of the evening.

But even then it wasn’t all over as in the eighth additional minute Town couldn’t clear a free-kick and Ellis Moore pounced on the loose ball to level it all up at 3-3.

Earlier, Town keeper Archie Donaldson had pulled off a string of top drawer saves as Sporting dominated the first half hour taking the lead on 16 minutes through Connor Kelly’s header from a corner.

Parker equalised on the stroke of half-time as he used his speed and strength to surge down the right touchline and cut in to drive the ball past the Sporting keeper, but Sporting regained the lead through Albie Turner 12 minutes into the second half and that seemed to be the decider until that flurry of goals late on turned the game on its head.