Dorchester Town 2 Truro City 2
A superb stoppage time equaliser from skipper Jake Ash gave ten man Truro City a positive start to 2013 as they came away from The Avenue Stadium with a welcome point towards their battle against relegation from Blue Square Bet South.
Down to ten men after the 87th minute dismissal of midfielder Marcus Martin for two yellow cards and trailing 2-1, it looked as if City would begin the year with a dispiriting defeat.
But up stepped Ash with a superb 18-yard volley to ensure they made the trip back from Dorset with a share of the spoils from a game in which they trailed twice.
Dan Thomson gave the home side the lead after 20 minutes with a glancing header, but just before half time Kieffer Moore levelled for City shooting into the far corner.
The Magpies though regained their lead with 15 minutes left through Ben Watson with a good finish after Lee Hodges had blocked his first attempt and that looked to be that until Ash again showed what a crucial player he is for City with that last gasp goal.
City were again down to just 12 players for the game, with Bobby Hopkinson suspended and Barry Hayles and Todd Hanrahan unwell, and Steve Adams having work commitments.
But player-manager Lee Hodges was against delighted with the commitment of his players and said they deserved a point from the game which notsurprisingly played on a very heavy pitch.
He said: "For the first ten or 15 minutes you could see we havn't played for a month but then we played some nice football, caused them a lot of problems and really deserved to go in ahead at half time.
"But in the second half Dorchester started to get on top and pushed us back and we got deeper and deeper.
"And after they scored their second goal I thought here we go again. But Jake popped up with a fantastic goal and it was a good way to start the year.
"But full credit to everyone we kept going and got our rewards. Kieffer took a big bang and carried on and Andy Watkins was phenomenal."
Hodges also paid tribute to the City fans who had made the trip to Dorset to support their team who are still 14 points adrift of safety ahead of a daunting trip to play second placed Welling United on Saturday.
City: McCormick; Hall, Ash, Hodges, Williams; Cooke, Broad, Martin, Afful; Watkins, Moore. Sub: Watts.
Half time: 1-1.
Goals: Thompson (20) 1-0, Moore (41) 1-1, Watson (76) 2-1, Ash (90) 2-2.
Crowd: 520.
Referee: T Wood.
