Southern League South, West Division

Shortwood United 2

Bristol Manor Farm 2

IN a seemingly inevitable turn of events, Shortwood once again fought back to gain a point in the second half, having fallen 0-2 behind in the first, writes Harry Ash.

Across the two games against Manor Farm, Wood has come back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3.

Boss Paul Meredith said: “Again the same old story of a slow, flat start to the game until the second half, where we got going and we were unlucky not to come out of it with three points.”

Wood are now five matches unbeaten and again showed tremendous spirit to come from behind. This was a hugely entertaining game, played in a excellent spirit and referee Daniel Lamport had a fine game.

Shortwood, surprisingly, started the better of the two teams, and were presented with a chance in the opening seconds when Manor Farm goalkeeper Clark handled an awkward back pass from Robbin. Liam Meredith laid the ball back to Joe White from the resulting indirect free-kick, but White’s shot from six yards struck the right-hand post. It took Manor Farm until midway through the half to have their first half-chance, as Simpson played through to Groves, but, off balance, he blasted over from just inside the box.

Manor Farm took the lead with just over half an hour played, with Jordan Metters threading through to Simpson, who finished low past Burton from a tight angle. Nine minutes later, an unfortunate own goal by Ashley Davies, slicing a clearance into the top corner from Holly’s free-kick, doubled the visitors’ lead.

On the stroke of half-time, a neatly worked short corner led to a Metters pull back to Holly on the edge of the box, but his shot was tipped over the bar by Burton.

Shortwood, despite a good start, had quickly fallen away, and Manor Farm were clearly the team in the ascendency going into half time.

Manor Farm looked tired and bereft of ideas for the majority of the second-half, whilst Shortwood recovered, and, as always, looked much more threatening after the restart.

The away side still forced two good saves from Burton in the opening fifteen minutes of the half, as Stamp was denied on both occasions. Shortwood pulled one back in the sixty-second minute through White, pouncing on a poor clearance following an Aliu cross, to smash the ball into the bottom corner. The comeback was sealed with seventeen minutes to play; Will Hawes gathered a miss-hit clearance from Clark, before dashing to the byline and pulling the ball back to Humphreys, who finished from close range to continue his fine goal scoring form since returning to the club.

SHORTWOOD: George Burton, Bakare Aliu, Tristan Haswell, Ryan Meredith, Richard Thwaite, Jack Freeman (Joe Noakes 55’), Ashley Davies, Joe White (Will Hawes 71’), Nick Humphreys, Liam Meredith (Ismail Samyan 73’), Jordan Morris

Attendance: 61