By Martin Eastwood

Emley’s unbeaten run now stands at 15 in all competitions after a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Hemsworth Miners Welfare. Niall Heaton got the all-important equaliser for the Pewits with 14 minutes remaining. 

Emley will be disappointed not to take all three points seeing as they dominated the fixture for large parts. 

The visitors started the better and created four good chances in the first ten minutes but failed to take them.

After a period of domination the home side then went up field again and took the lead with their only second foray into the Emley half. A free-kick was conceded 25 yards out, Emley keeper Declan Lambton did well to parry the shot, but the ball was then played in from the right and was tapped home for an unlikely lead for The Wells by Ben Gelder in the 20th minute.

Hemsworth could have doubled their lead when a ball was played through the defence and was slotted home, however, Emley’s players, bench and fans protested about a two-handed shove by a Hemsworth player during the build up. The ref had his back to it and eventually disallowed the goal after consulting his assistant. The score stayed at 1-0 up to the break.

Emley started the second half as well as they did the first, shooting towards their travelling fans, they were on the front foot straightaway. Iyrwah Gooden and Paul Walker found space down the flanks and Joe Jagger made a nuisance of himself up front.

However, just around the hour mark, the hosts finally cracked, and it was a fairly scrappy goal. Another corner caused confusion in the box and eventually it came to skipper James Knowles who stabbed it home to the delight of the visiting contingent, 1-1.

That equaliser was almost short-lived as just a minute later Hemsworth hit the post again, the rebound fell nicely too but the shot was blazed over.

The hosts bagged a second goal in the 69th minute when a good move down their right saw the ball moved to the left where Jason Davis cut in and shot low past Lambton to the delight of the Hemsworth fans to make it 2-1. 

Emley again equalised to make it 2-2 in the 76th minute. The Pewits had another corner which was delivered perfectly into the danger zone and Heaton thumped a header into the back of the net.

At 2-2 Gooden did his best to win it but two of his shots were wayward and Jagger then saw a stinging effort blocked.

Gallery of images by: MARK PARSONS