Daisy Hill 0-1 Cheadle Town
Just in the nick of time.
As the first minute of injury time ticked over and yours truly was trying his best to do the mathematics and calculate the significance of a draw, Mr Richard Whyatt - well and truly due a goal - picked the perfect moment to rekindle his netting prowess.
As it turns out results elsewhere would have meant that the draw would have all-but put paid to any hopes of us reaching the play-offs. It's still out of our own hands but the "ask" is now a bit simpler: win our remaining match at Rochdale Town and hope that St Helens Town fail to win theirs against Hanley.
On a tense afternoon at New Sirs where nerves meant that blasphemy was commonplace (sorry, Terry) we, as has been our wont this season, made hard work of it.
Our first sight of goal came after seven minutes when Thabiso Magida chased down a fluffed clearance by the Daisy keeper, with him making a good recovery to make a good save from Thab's resulting effort.
Just after the quarter-hour Mike Sherrington was put through only for him to lob his effort inches over the crossbar with Steve Piggott then called into action four minutes later when he got down to his right to make a smart stop at the near post.
Liam Tongue sent two of his specialities inches over the crossbar before half-time before the to-and-fro continued into the second half.
On 53 minutes Daisy rolled the ball across the face of our net with, thankfully, nobody there to do the simple job of tapping home with their keeper then fluffing another clearance, the ball being eventually crossed to Rick Whyatt who headed over.
Thab Magida was put clean through on 64 minutes but his attempted lift over the keeper was blocked before Jimmy Moores had to perform a superb saving tackle just as a Daisy attacker was about to shoot on goal.
With ten minutes left the Daisy keeper clawed a back post header off the line following a corner before a heart-in-mouth moment when Dave Young hacked an effort off the line.
With injury time a minute old, we got a free kick just outside the penalty box. What happened next is slightly muddled in my head, probably due to me tearing down the touchline myself to join in with the players' celebrations, but we managed to retrieve possession after the free-kick was cleared with the ball being clipped into the box from the left and Rick Whyatt bundling home from close range.
Just one match to go. But hopefully more....
TEAM: Piggott, Rodrigues (Stevenson), Pearson, Trucca, Young, Moores, Hincks, Tongue, M Sherrington, Whyatt, Magida (Horan). SUBS: Horan, Stevenson, McLaughlin.
