North Village 2 Dandy Town 2

Dandy Town came within a few inches of picking up their first league win of the season when Kwame Steede’s 87th-minute shot smashed against the crossbar at Bernard Park.

Town, who twice came from behind, were down to ten men at that stage following the sending off of defender Jomei Bean-Lindo for a handball inside the box in the 65th.

It brought Bean-Lindo, a summer transfer from Devonshire Colts, his second booking after going into referee Garic Swainson’s book five minutes earlier for dissent.

Bean-Lindo left the field protesting that the ball hit his shoulder, before the spot-kick was converted by Keishen Bean on his first game back after rejoining the Rams from BAA.

Yesterday, Village, with Kenny Thompson back as head coach, included five new signings in their starting eleven, with Troy Tucker having a good game in midfield on his debut. Four other news signings were on the bench for the Rams.

Village looked to have secured the three points with Bean’s penalty which put them 2-1 up as Town were forced to finish with a man short.

However, Town showed a fighting spirit and equalised six minutes later when a quick break upfield saw Eusebio Blankendal chip a short cross inside the box to the far post where Steede rose high to head past goalkeeper Tahj Bell.

Then after he went close with his late effort from inside the box, Village also snatched the points themselves at the other end when fullback Jarreau Daniels’s cross went untouched across the six-yard box with substitute Che’Kai Caisey’s outstretched leg just failing to make contact.

Devarr Boyles, the Town coach, was happy with a point in a match that could have gone either way.

“We haven’t started the league well, but you can see there are elements in our football that are very encouraging, it’s just a matter of goals,” said Boyles who saw his team net thirteen goals in two big Dudley Eve Trophy wins earlier in the month before being brought down to earth last weekend with their 1-0 loss to promoted side Somerset Eagles.

“In both games opponents had a few good chances but for the most part we played well.

“For the second time, we finished with ten men and you couldn’t tell. It was just like that last weekend.

“We need to do more in the first half and we’re just not doing that at the moment. You always want the three points, but we’ll take a point which starts us off, which is important.

“Now we just have to find a way to make it up in other games. We could have won it in the end, maybe North Village, too.”

Village had an encouraging start, taking the lead in the 12th minute with a tap-in from close range from Jaizel Smith-DeShields following a short pass from the right side by Rai Simons, who was leading the attack well before a leg injury forced him off in the 33rd minute.

Just three minutes earlier, Town thought they had a penalty when captain Angelo Simmons went down in the box, with referee Swainson pointing to the spot, only to reverse the decision after realising that a linesman’s flag was up for offside against Simmons as he received the pass.

Village almost doubled their lead early in the second half when Town goalkeeper Julian Roser blocked Keishen Bean’s shot to concede a corner.

Town levelled the score on the hour mark when Simmons converted a twice-taken penalty after substitute Jahkari Furbert was fouled by Kyler Knights.

The first kick was saved by Bell to his right, but the kick was ordered retaken because a player had encroached into the box. This time, Simmons placed his kick to Bell’s left with the goalkeeper again going to his right.

Town inflicted a 6-2 loss on Village at Bernard Park last season with Simmons scoring four goals on that occasion in February.

SCORERS

North Village

Darrell 12

Bean (pen) 65

Dandy Town

Simmons (pen) 57

Steede 71

TEAMS

North Village (4-4-2): T Bell — J Daniels K Knights, Z Robinson, A Darrell (sub: C Caisey, 73) — J Briers, J Smith-DeShields, T Tucker, J Bell (sub: R Rochester, 78) — R Simons (sub: D Daniels, 33), K Bean. Substitutes not used: Q Lema, Hendrickson, R Murphy, W Shakir.

Dandy Town (4-3-3): J Roser — A Furbert, J Bean-Lindo, S Darrell, M Parsons (sub: J Furbert, 38) — L Emery (sub: J Chapman, 66), E Blankendal, R Trott — K Steede, A Simmons, C Darrell (sub: O Lowe, 55) Substitutes not used: J Swan, M Aden, D Butterfield, C Davis.

Sent off: Bean-Lindo.

Referee: G Swainson