The resilience and determination Belvedere Tauranga City United have displayed all season turned a losing cause against Forrest Hill-Milford AFC into a 2-2 draw at Links Ave yesterday.
Trailing the more experienced visitors 0-2 with 15 minutes to go it seemed the match was as good as over. So comfortable were Forrest Hill their former All Whites David Mulligan and Andy Boyens stayed on the bench.
But no one told Tauranga City and especially inspirational wide attacker Jerahl Hughes it was over. From a corner the former Crystal Palace junior curled an inch perfect ball straight into the Forrest Hill goal to ignite the comeback. Three minutes later Hughes set off on yet another jinking run towards the Forrest Hill defenders and slipped past into the box. As he went to shoot he was held back enough to blunt his shot. Luckily the eagle eyed linesman spotted it and signalled a penalty.
Striker Colm Kenny so nearly won it for Tauranga City with the last action of the match only to be denied by a quite brilliant save by young goalkeeper Louie Caunter.
The 2-2 draw was the least Tauranga City deserved as they had the better of the match but made two serious defensive errors to concede the goals. In the first half defender Raymond How lost his bearings under pressure and sent a sweet shot into his own net before a communication breakdown later on left Ryan Morrow unmarked inside the box to score.
