REPORT | Anstey Nomads 2-2 Quorn

Despite taking the lead twice, Quorn were pegged back to a 2-2 draw away to, near neighbours, Anstey Nomads. Ryan Beswick scored a penalty in the 40th minute, before Ant Lynn levelled things in the 63rd. Paddy Webb restored the lead but Anstey snatched a draw when they turned in a goalmouth scramble with 14 minutes to play.

Anstey dominated the opening 15 minutes, barely allowing Quorn any possession beyond the halfway line, though the hosts were unable to create any clear-cut chances as the Reds defended stoutly. The rest of the first half was almost one-way traffic in the other direction, as the visitors crafted plenty of openings.

Conrad Logan had to be at his best to deny Cain Noble with his feet twice, making an excellent double-save in the 17th minute. The former Leicester City goalkeeper made another fine save in the 23rd minute, as Reece Fyfe fired in a wicked, curling effort from the edge of the box. Noble tested Logan again around the half hour mark, shooting from distance in an effort to catch the veteran out, but the Irishman was equal to it.

Quorn took a deserved lead in the 40th minute, when Silvio Bello was brought down in the box. Beswick stepped up to convert from the spot for the fourth time this season. Tyree Wilson was a constant threat, even on a boggy pitch as heavy rain fell throughout the evening, and his curling effort just before the break was inches wide.

Wilson had another chance, early in the second half, as a well-worked free kick routine found him in space in the box. Logan got down well to save at his near post though. Anstey found a leveller in the 63rd minute, when the ball ran kindly for Lynn, and he was able to run through the middle and fire past on the on-rushing Charlie Woods.

Quorn still looked the more threatening side though, and when Webb picked the ball up on halfway, he drove in to the box and played a neat one-two with Billy Kee, collecting the ball and gliding past defenders. As he bore down on the goal though, his angle was becoming narrower, and there hardly seemed enough space to squeeze a shot past Logan, but Webb thundered the ball into the roof of the net to make it 2-1 in the 70th minute.

Anstey didn’t allow their heads to drop and continued to pump the ball forward. A 76th minute goalmouth scramble resulted in a scrappy equaliser for the Nomads to delight of a partisan home crowd. Both sides went in search of a winner, but neither came very close in the dying embers of a fiercely contested match.