The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Framlingham Town 3
Holbeach United 3
Two goals from Will Barnes deep into injury time rescued a point for Holbeach United against leader leaders Framlingham Town on Saturday.
The Tigers showed plenty of fight to earn a 3-3 draw.
And it averted a dressing down from manager Danny Clifton who thought his team were the better side on the day and shouldn’t have been losing in the first place.
“It’s about having that confidence and realising we are a good side and then turning these draws into wins,” he said after the ninth draw in 24 that leaves Holbeach seven points outside of the play offs in the Thurlow Nunn First Division North. “We gifted Framlingham their goals.
“But credit to the lads, the things we have without question is fight and we’re always able to create chances and we got out of jail on Saturday.
“We went away to the team top of the league without Cal Davies Harvey Wirkowski, and Harvey Robertson and then lost Kyle Compton to injury very early on, but after ten minutes you could already see we were the better side.”
It was against the run of play that Framlingham took the lead but Holbeach hit straight back to level through Bogdan Masnita.
Goals either side of the break gave Holbeach plenty of work to do.
“Both of them were gifts.” said Clifton. “You can’t just expect the goalkeeper to be there and claim it so they just let the ball drop.
“We spoke to them at half time about not doing that, then it happened again moments into the second half.
“It was so disappointing and frustrating.
“But fair play to the lads, they kept creating and got back into the game at the end.”
Just two minutes of stoppage time were signalled but it proved enough for the Tigers.
“We moved to three up front to get Barnes higher up the pitch,” Clifton continued. “Both were lovely moves.
“The first came from Ainsley Johnson’s ball from the left which Harvey Henderson nodded back to Barnes who finished well.
“I couldn’t believe it when Framlingham gave us the ball back from their kick off.
“We built it up from the back and worked it to Barnes who was right on the money with the strike.
“Two goals in less than 60 seconds.”
The Tigers host Diss Town in a 3pm kick off at Carter’s Park on Saturday.
Clifton hopes Davies will be back for the fixture as Holbeach look to get back into the play offs.
“It’s a tough task but if we can turn more of these draws into wins in the second half of this season we’ll be about there,” Clifton said.
Tigers: Rigby, H Henderson, Nicholson, F Henderson, Johnson, Barnes, Carter, Millinson, Yambasu, Mansita, Compton. Subs: Bilicz, Oldham, Smith
Attendance: 92.
