Frome Town battled hard to earn a draw away at Easington Sports in the FA Cup, the result meaning a replay will take place at Badgers Hill in a few days.
The Clan took the lead early on through a Joe Eyre header before James Ollis levelled 13th minutes later with a delightful chip over Max Treml.
Despite playing two levels lower than The Robins, the Oxfordshire based side delivered a compelling performance, and having already knocked out the likes of Bristol Manor Farm, it came as no surprise.
The hosts started extremely fast and should have taken the lead just thirty seconds in when Leam Howards found himself through on goal, he attempted an audacious chip and whilst successfully lobbing Kyle Phillips, he also cleared the crossbar.
However the miss wasn’t rued for too long as the home side took the lead through Eyre just three minutes later after he got his head on to a spiffing cross from the right hand side, guiding his header back across goal and in to the corner.
It was a wake up call for the visitors and the performance did go up a gear or two after the goal, with the pair of Albie Hopkins and Marcus Day looking particularly threatening in the first half.
It was our no.18 who drew us level however, receiving the ball in the box, he did what Howard’s failed to do earlier - lifting the ball over the keeper but also in to the back of the net to draw us level.
The away side started to really dominate the game at this point, Treml had to be alert to flick a diversion from his own defender towards goal after Ollis’ cutback in the 24th minute, whilst also dealing with many a dangerous set piece’s.
At this point the half was sort of just petering out, Frome dominated the ball but struggled to break down a resilient Easington Sports defence, this changed at the interval however, with Evra Yao replacing Marcus Day for the second 45, he was causing all sorts of problems from the get go, putting a blistering cross in in the 49th minute, which found Ollis but he could only divert it wide.
Once again Yao was at the fore front of the attack, he slipped Ollis through in the 51st minute, but once again the striker couldnt find a way past Treml’s boot, although it appeared the game was certainly opening up.
The 55th minute came around with Easington finally finding a way to stop the dangerous Yao, by pulling him to the ground, effective it must be said, but the free-kick from Hopkins was close but just wide of the left post.
New boys Ethan Vaughan and Joe O’Loughlin both came on around the 70th minute, with Vaughan replacing Zak Drew whilst O’Loughlin replaced Sam Heal, who just went on a mazy run a minute before but couldn’t get a shot off in the end.
Hopkins continued to look a threat down the right and with the ball falling kindly to him on the half volley, he thumped an effort towards goal with Treml equal to it again, it has to be said he had an exceptional game between the sticks.
For the last five minutes Frome got massively on top, perhaps some tiredness was creeping in to the legs of the Easington Sports players who gave it their all, and despite the late flurry of chances, we still could find a way to get in front.
In the 86th minute the ball was worked through the middle before the keeper parried an effort which Yao reacted quickest to, it appeared to be a simple tap in, but an Easington defender flew from out of nowhere to somehow divert it over for a corner.
Then in the 91st minute, Ollis received the ball in the box, swiftly turning his man, he had a clear shot on goal but snatched at his effort and dragged it wide.
With all of the chances, Frome would have been disappointed to head a replay, but just minutes after spurning that last chance, they probably would have been slightly grateful to be still in the tie, when an Easington corner in the 93rd minute fell to their man in the box, he smashed it towards goal, fortunately it was well blocked by a blue shirt, whether he knew anything about it is a different question, but it was a massive moment as that quite easily could have deflected in and that would have been the end of the FA Cup dream.
The replay will take place in three days time on Tuesday 3rd September, with the draw taking place the day prior.
Match report and live updates by Harrison Richards
Match report and live updates by Harrison Richards
Now the fixture list is out and the tickets for the first couple months of home fixtures are ready for purchase, you can secure entry in advance on the FanBase app and website (link below)
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