REPORT: Grantham Town 2-2 Quorn
By Kurt Barnes
Grantham Town mounted an unlikely comeback to snatch a point against the league-leading Reds. Cain Noble scored his twelfth of the season to open the scoring before a Ben Richards own goal made it 2-0 to the visitors. A penalty handed the hosts a lifeline, before a scrambled equaliser in the final minute.
Quorn started with an early chance that came through Paddy Webb, but a fantastic save from the Grantham keeper Paul Cooper denied the Reds an early lead. Town showed early warning signs in the seventh minute, when they forced two very good saves from Tom Allsopp in quick succession. The Reds were in just two minutes later when Rodrigo Goncalves was fed the ball and raced away down the wing, crossing the ball in and winning a corner in the process.
Just a minute later, it was Grantham that were in and a great block denied them a certain opener. The Reds seemed fairly quiet for a large part of the first half, not troubling Grantham again until around the half an hour mark. Zak Goodson had a wild attempt at goal missing by a distance before Zhani Burgess tried his luck with a cheeky chip that went just over a minute later.
The Gingerbreads had the best chance of a scrappy half in the 35th minute they hit the post. Just before the break, Quorn worked their best chance of the half with Noble forcing a superb save from Cooper to keep the score level at the break. It had been a scrappy first half, with the ball barely in play. With a running track around the sparsely populated stadium it was taking an eternity to get the ball back in play, which suited the hosts as it prevented the Reds from building any momentum.
Quorn came out at the start of the second half looking for the goal that would put them in the lead, and just four minutes after the restart Noble’s shot was blocked by the hosts captain, and former Red, Sam Muggleton. The Methodists finally broke the deadlock in the 54th minute after a rare flowing move down the left saw a neat ball into Noble who was able to strike through a crowd.
The Reds doubled their advantage 11 minutes later, Webb doing the hard work, firing in a cross from the left Richards turned it into his own net. Quorn had looked comfortable and in complete control, but a 71st minute penalty turned the tide of the match. Tom Pawson converted for the hosts to make for a fraught finale. All of a sudden, with the hosts chasing the game, balls were being thrown in from the technical area, rather than waiting for them to the be collected from the running track, which the Referee allowed without question.
There were chances for both sides as the game hurtled towards a thrilling climax, though a long-throw always seemed to be Grantham’s best route to goal, and so it proved. Muggleton launched a throw-in to the back post, where Allsopp made an initial save, but was unlucky when the rebound found Max Cook who was able to turn it home for 2-2. Ryan Beswick had some stern words for his side following the capitulation, as the Reds allowed the chasing pack to make-up ground in the race for the title.
Quorn have a chance to get back to winning ways on Saturday as they welcome Coleshill Town to The Stotto Stadium (3pm KO).