Normandy Star 1 Scaur 1

Normandy welcomed unbeaten Scaur to Hospital Park with a chance to jump above them with a win. The visitors are always a strong, physical but well drilled team and their record this season showed they would be a tough nut to crack. Scaur started at a high tempo, pressing the ball and attacking down the flanks, without ever troubling the goal. Normandy grew into the match, and while Scaur huffed and puffed Star created the better opportunities with a few franctic goalmouth scrambles and the ball somehow staying out of the net. Scaur did have the ball in the net, but the striker was clearly offside, and the ref did well to explain the rule to them before continuing the match. It was Normandy who opened the scoring on the half hour mark, a deep corner from Ben turned in at the back post by Bailey. Normandy also had a shout for a second as a long range effort appeared to come back off the stanchion but the ref waved away the claims it crossed the line. Scott had the ball in the net in the second half, but having learned the offside rule in the first half the Scaur players were happy to see it applied in their favour this time. The match was becoming a real battle, with Normandy allowing Scaur plenty of possession while looking to add to their lead. As the clock ran out Scaur began to rely on set pieces to get something from the match, looking for a series of ineffective free kicks. An astonishing 5 minutes into added time they won a free kick on the left and threw it into the box, an excellent header rescued an unlikely point and the referee blew the final whistle. A draw was probably a fair result but the lateness of the leveller was hard to take for Normandy who must try and bounce back quickly as they host Terregles next Sunday.