Crows shuffled the pack near the end.
Coming off the back of a good performance and result on Saturday away at Holmesdale FC, there was an air of expectation around the Community Stadium as the Crows prepared to take on the visitors, Deal Town.
With only a few changes from Saturday as well, Everest coming in for the injured Jason Hollick, therefore, Tom Boddy switched to right back from centre half, Shea replaced Clarke on the left, who dropped to the bench and new signing Mici replacing Spear who was with the U21 squad, the prospect of another three points seemed high.
The Crows definitely started very well, putting the Deal Town defence under pressure from the start, Shea, Ridley and Mici, causing problems with their movement and passing ability and really the Crows should have been at least 1-0 up, if not 2-0 up, after 15 minutes, however, a couple of gilt-edged chances went begging and it remained 0-0.
Unfortunately, and against the run of play at that time, the Crows went 1-0 down in rather bizarre circumstances, Collick did well to save a close range shot but couldn't hold on to the ball, in an attempt to clear the danger, a Crow defender hit the ball, unintentionally it must added, against Rivera and it went back into the net with Collick stranded.
The Crows wasted another great opportunity, after 17 minutes, when Shea set Ridley free in the area but Sparks in the Deal goal made a very good save from Ridley and the ball was cleared, although perhaps Ridley felt he should've put the chance away.
Chances for either team became few and far between for the rest of the half, as the game became a bit scrappy and more of a midfield battle, too many misplaced passes, too many free kicks and not enough composure from either side meant everything was rushed and high balls aplenty were sent flying towards the respective forward lines.
The wind blowing from the dressing room end to the junior pitch end definitely did not help either, plus players from both sides became frustrated with quite a few decisions made by referee R. Albert and his assistants, one of who seemed to have plenty to say for himself when he engaged in some "banter" with the spectators at the dressing room end, which didn't seem to help his officiating much either.
The Crows generally had the better possession after going 1-0 down, however, as the half drew to a close, the produced a couple of good chances, Carrington, Mici and Ridley again having efforts cleared or saved, they had three or four corners in quick succession, one leading to Boddy having a header cleared of the line, and as the half time whistle blew, it was 1-0 to Deal as the players headed off to the warmth of their respective dressing room.
The Crows had to make an enforced substitution at half time, Carrington suffering a recurrence of his angle injury and he was replaced by new signing Abraham Bably, who therefore, made his debut for the club.
It has to be said that for most of the second half, Deal Town showed how to defend a 1-0 lead away from home and use the conditions in such a way to their advantage. They worked very hard as individuals and as a team, chasing and closing our players down whenever they either had the ball or where about to receive it.
They also cut down the space behind their back four and the goalkeeper by sitting deep with their midfield players only five or ten yards in front of them. They were also very competitive all over the pitch, very strong and experienced throughout their side and quick up front, chasing any ball played into the corners or over the top, thus denying us any time on the ball.
The amount of effort they were putting in made a few people think that may be, they wouldn't be able to keep it up for 90 minutes, however, they worked hard enough to force Jagger into a rash challenge on the edge of the Crow's penalty area and therefore, he became the first player to be shown a yellow card in the game after 57 minutes.
After 66 minutes, the Crows felt they had to shuffle their pack and captain, Paul Butler, was replaced by the returning Ryan Waterman, who had a spell on the sidelines through injury. This change did increase our tempo and the Crows then started to play Deal at their own game, being just as quick to the ball as the away side.
On 72 minutes Mici, who had worked tirelessly upfront without having much luck, was replaced by Clarke, whose first challenge for the ball after entering the field, was to give away a free kick half way in our half.
Unfortunately, from the resulting free kick, Deal Town made it 2-0, Bagley bundling the ball over the line after the Crow's defence failed to clear the ball from their area properly once again.
Whether going 2-0 up put the away side into a comfort zone is hard to say, but it did appear to those watching that the Crows were starting to get a grip of the game more and they were spending more time in and around the Deal penalty area.
After 83 minutes the Crows were thrown a lifeline, Ridley heading the ball into the net from a Clarke corner, this gave the Crows a target to go for now and some hope they might be able to get something out of this game.
It also seemed to make Deal a bit nervy and cautious, as they took off their danger man, Rivera after 88 minutes, with A. Coyne replacing him, in an effort to see out the rest of the game and take the three points home with them.
With time running out and in an effort to run down the clock, Anderson went off for Deal and he was replaced by Carpenter in the 90+1 minute, however, with the referee adding stoppage time for every substitution, it rather backfired on them, as it gave the Crows time to score an equaliser in the 90+3 minute, Shea having a shot saved but the rebound fell kindly to Ridley who gleefully fired the ball into the back of the net for 2-2.
At the end and after the game it was obvious that one team was happy, the Crows, whilst one team, Deal Town, were unhappy, they thought at 2-0 the points were theirs and to concede two goals near the end of the game, is of course, a sickening feeling. However, you have to give the Crows credit for keeping going when they could have easily given up, not something they normally do any way, and for getting something out of a game they didn't play as well as they can or have been of late.
I don't think Deal will agree that, probably, over the 90+4 minutes a draw was a fair result due to them being so close to winning it, however, in the cold light of day and on reflection, they may feel differently.