Iyrwah Gooden was the match winner as he scored his first Emley AFC goal to snatch victory in a dramatic 3-2 win at Albion Sports.

The Pewits had sped into a 2-0 lead by half-time but were pegged back to 2-2 in the second half. However Emley won the game as Gooden superbly struck the back of the net in the dying seconds to give the club all three points.

Boss Richard Tracey was delighted for Gooden who he says has settled well to life at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground. 

He said: “Iyrwah could have had a couple of goals before now, so it is great for him to get off of the mark. He’s settled in really well and we are looking forward to continuing to work with him.” 

Emley’s opener came from a Joe Clegg corner. He played it in low towards James Knowles who left it for striker Joe Jagger to rifle into the bottom corner and make it 1-0 in the 23rd minute. 

The Pewits then doubled their lead with another well worked goal in the 36th minute. A Donae Lawrence surge down the left saw him play a lovely ball into the path of Joe Kenny who blasted home for his first goal of the season.

Emley went in leading 2-0 at the break but it took the Lions just six second half minutes to claw a goal back with a fine strike from Jahro Parchment. 

With eight minutes to go the hosts levelled the game when Hass Gorji scored from the penalty spot. With two minutes remaining Jaydon Sandhu drilled it low and Gooden was on the end of it to steer home the winner.

The Pewits have now claimed their second successive away win and made it four games unbeaten, three in the league and one in the FA Vase.

Boss Tracey said: “Performance wise we weren’t at our best and Albion caused us problems. We had five or six good chances in the first half and then in the second half we really didn’t do the basics well enough and Albion punished us for that, thankfully we nicked one at the end. 

“We have said to the team that winning when you are not playing well is a good habit and the lads dug in to edge us over the line.” 

Emley now host Hallam at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground on Tuesday (7.45) and Tracey revealed he may get in touch with Golcar United who have already beaten Emley’s next opponents for some pointers. 

He said: “We know this will be a really tough game but I’ll speak with Ash Connor at Golcar to see how they approached them as they managed to take two huge victories in their games against them recently.”