TIVVY ARCHIVE

Hendon 2 - 2 Tiverton Town

Depending on which half of the latest match you watched would sway your decision to this question. One point gained or two dropped ? If you had seen only the first half, definitely a point gained but in stark contrast, with only the second half taken in, you would say two points dropped. At the interval the Yellows trailed by two, giant midfielder Bayley Brown opened the scoring after ten and Shaquille Hippolyte-Patrick doubled the hosts lead ten minutes later and only some last ditch defending and wayward shooting prevented their lead being more as Hendon looked like making a mockery of their recent form that had seen them lose eight straight league matches. At the full time whistle though, the hosts would have been delighted with the point they got after the Yellows stormed back in to the match, scoring twice in three minutes, Levi Landricombe with his fifteenth of the campaign on forty-eight before Tom Bath headed in from close range on fifty-one and as Hendon had in the first half, the Yellows passed up on glorious opportunities to score more.

Absentees for the latest fixture were captain Jamie Price (ill), Tom Gardner (wrist) and Lewis Tasker who has joined Wellington so again numbers were thin on the ground, the cause for the future made worse when Ben Mammola left the field on a stretcher in the final minutes, early fears of a potential break were dismissed but ligament damage a possibility and so faces a spell out of the side and the cause for the day also hampered when Davis, making his return from suspension, didn’t make half time (unwell) and was replaced by Tom Bath and by the time Bath entered the fray the damage in the first half was done. Pre-match talk, before an impeccably observed period of silence in memory of Hendon legend Dermot Drumy, was about the need for not giving away needless fouls and inviting pressure as Hendon, blessed with height amongst their ranks, would be able to capitalise with Mammola as the only recognised central defender, pre-match warnings that were not heeded as after just ten minutes Davis fouled Lewis Toomey, Hendon captain Lee Chappell swung in the resulting free kick from their left and Brown was on hand to tap in from close range after the ball had fallen kindly to him. Brown then turned provider as he flicked on a big free kick from Hendon keeper Danny Boness on twenty minutes which was eventually worked on to Hippolyte-Patrick who, from the edge of the area, fired high past Armstrong for the hosts second. For all the hosts superiority thus far though, only a coat of paint and possibly some goal line technology stopped the Yellows from reducing their half time deficit, from an Isaac Furness free kick just after half an hour Josh Key headed against the crossbar and the follow up from Yetton was adjudged not to have crossed the line.

As good as the hosts were in the first period, the second half was a polar opposite and whatever manager Martyn Rogers said during the break worked a treat. Levi Landricombe had already fired narrowly wide before he reduced the arrears on forty-eight minutes, as he took Tom Baths lay-off first time and curled home league goal fifteen from the edge of the area and just three minutes later the two combined again for the equaliser. Man of the Match for his tireless work up and down the Yellows left wing Callum Hall was fouled, Levi Landricombe swung in the free kick and Bath gambled at the near post and headed home his seventh league goal. Boness in the Hendon goal could do nothing about two of the three shots he`d faced in the early part of the second period but were it not for his performance for the remainder of the half, the Yellows would surely have completed the turnaround, twice denying Levi Landricombe another goal and most notably when a brilliant point blank save denied Yetton with a quarter of an hour to play.

Tiverton Town: Liam Armstrong, Josh Key, Isaac Furness, Ben Mammola (Scott Rogers 90+1), Michael Landricombe, Max Smallcombe, Harrison Davis (Tom Bath 38), Steve Colwell, Stewart Yetton, Levi Landricombe, Callum Hall
Goals: Levi Landricombe 48, Tom Bath 51

Attendance: 252