The Ambers were reminded of how cruel a game football can be as they succumbed to a fluke injury time winner from visiting Thackley after a well balanced game looked to be heading for a deserved point apiece.
It was a much improved performance from the home side, particularly in the opening 45 minutes, whilst the visitors must presumably have been saying the same after their surprise home defeat by Goole during the week.
Handsworth made four changes to the side that were beaten last time out, some enforced and others not, and in a strong start to the game, they peppered the oppositions goal as Henry Carne headed wide from a corner, Masai Arbouin glanced a header just wide and Leon Howarth brought out a good low save from Wilson, who was then quickly off his line to snuff out the danger as Aaron Moxam dashed onto a Howarth flick on.
Howarth had started the game well on the left, and he almost grabbed the opener when he showed his quality by getting on the end of a superb crossfield ball from Brandon Bagley and firing his shot inches wide, before an almost identical pass from Tom Cropper again found him in space, but this time a Thackley defender got the block in to deflect the ball away for a corner.
Up to this point it had been one way traffic, but somehow The Ambers suddenly found themselves a goal down in Thackley’s first attack of note. Mitchell found some space down their right and from his cross Claridge had the time and space to neatly sweep home the ball past an exposed Dylan Parkin.
The Ambers responded well and when Bodle misplaced a defensive header, the ball was chased down by Moxam who crossed for Howarth to head over from close range as he stretched to reach the looping ball in from the right, whilst at the other end, Claridge was put through straight down the middle by Mitchell but his first touch let him down much to the relief of Parkin who was out quickly to grab the loose ball.
The game was much more even now, and The Ambers managed to grab a deserved equaliser when Carne rose highest to plant his header past Wilson from a Mason Barlow corner for his second goal of the season. Things should have got even better for the hosts just before the break when they found themselves on the charge through Cropper, but with three team mates screaming for the ball into the box, the full back got it all wrong on this occasion and over hit his cross to the relief of the visitors who were seriously outnumbered at the back. The half ended with Wilson positioning himself well to hold onto a speculative volley from Barlow which came through a crowd of players.
Handsworth started the second period as they had finished the first, on the front foot, and when Moxam played Howarth through on goal it looked certain that he would be opening his account for the season, but a heavy first touch took the ball away from him and Wilson was quick to pounce on the loose ball. Howarth then returned the favour by setting up Moxam but his attempted chip over the keeper was second guessed and it ended up as a comfortable save for the Thackley number 1.
The visitors then forced a corner, from which Dempsey’s headed effort was punched away under pressure by a diving Parkin, with the centre back’s next involvement being a foul on the edge of his own box to halt Howarth in his tracks. Subs Alfie Dodsworth and Kieran Wells were brought on and the former took the free kick which caused a massive scramble in the Thackley area that was somehow survived by the visitors, and as they broke quickly upfield, Claridge fed Everingham who cut in from the right and was only denied by an excellent Parkin save.
Substitutions were being made at a rapid rate by both sides, and as a result, the game became very scrappy but both teams kept going looking for the vital late breakthrough to nick the points. Carne deflected Billy’s well struck effort wide at one end whilst Arbouin’s effort at the other just curled away past the far post, but it was debutant Mitch Carlton who came closest to breaking the deadlock with a speculative effort that flew just over the bar.
Then right at the death, in the fifth minute of added on time, it was Thackley who snatched the three points in the most fortunate of circumstances. Donovan did well initially to make room and get his shot away but Parkin’s save deflected on to the unsuspecting Woodward and the ball trickled over the line to send the three points back up the M1, a victory that sees Thackley overtake The Ambers and move into 2nd place in the table.
The Ambers are next in action at Goole on Tuesday night, in the first of three successive away fixtures.