Horsham 2, Aveley 2

A LATE equaliser in added time denied Aveley an Isthmian Premier win today (Saturday, 3 December), a win that would have been remarkable as they ended an incident-packed match with nine players.

The final whistle to a fractious encounter played out in front of a crowd of 603 brought scenes of mayhem as a melee broke out involving virtually all the remaining players.

There may well be repercussions for both sides as the incident is investigated following the referee's report.  

The first half hour of the match was relatively quiet, aside from a spectacular overhead effort from Ben Allen that was just off target,  as both sides checked each other out but the deadlock was broken on 34 minutes with a fine goal from Tom Kavanagh.

He delivered a superb free kick from distance that gave keeper Jonathan North no chance despite his acrobatic effort and Horsham took the lead into the break.

Aveley flew out of the blocks at the restart and pressed their hosts back but they were unable to break through.

And the match looked to have gone away from them on 58 minutes when centre back Ryan Scott swung an elbow that connected with Horsham's Lucas Rodrigues and ref Ciaran Fidler was on hand with an instant red card.

But Aveley are nothing, if not resilient and within six minutes they were on level terms when Allen nicked the ball from Tyler Christian-Law and fired a shot past Amadu Tangara.

Horsham responded with a purple patch of play but Millers kept them at bay and had the temerity to grab the lead on 78 minutes when Allen grabbed his second, rising to guide a fine header into the top corner following a corner.

With the clock ticking down Aveley's ten men resisted everything Horsham could throw at them but they suffered a further blow on 90 minutes when Garrett Kelly, who had come on when Scott was sent off, was himself dismissed for persistent dissent.

With all the remaining Aveley players now camped in their own penalty area, the Hornets threw the kitchen sink at their visitors, resulting in substitute Eddie Dsane firing the equaliser into the bottom corner in the last of the five added minutes of stoppage time to bring the match to a breathless climax.