Albion Sports 3 Barton Town Old Boys 5

TEN-MAN Albion Sports hauled themselves level with visitors Barton Town just four minutes from time – but still lost a remarkable eight-goal thriller at Throstle Nest.

It was fourth hosting fifth in the Toolstation Northern Counties East Premier Division and the clash hinged on the sending off of Albion’s keeper on the stroke of half time, a decision which led to a penalty that got Barton back into the game.

Albion’s goalkeeping coach Mark Bower was in the starting line-up as regular No 1 Jack Bentley was serving a one game ban, ironically for a foul that denied a goalscoring opportunity.

That is what Saturday’s referee Wade Smith dismissed Bower for after his challenge in the area left Barton’s Gareth Owen sprawled on the turf in the 45th minute.

Sports’ boss Kulwinder Sandhu said, “It was never a sending off and their manager said that to me as well.

“The ball was going away from goal when contact was made so it should have been a foul and a yellow card.

"That decision has changed the game, we were in it even with ten men right until the end and, if we’d had a proper keeper for all of it, we would have won it.”

Albion raced to a 2-0 lead with Marcus Edwards finishing off a great team move to break the deadlock in the 12th minute and Alex Cusack firing in a shot off the underside of the bar from a tight angle just two minute later.

When Bower departed, forward Omar Habib donned the gloves but he was static as Ashley Lattimore drilled in from the spot.

Habib didn’t come out for the second half with the gloves on, with substitute Matt Mathers – a defender turned striker – appeared with right winger Josh Eastwood being sacrificed.

Mathers did well to save from Gareth Owen in the 71st minute but was beaten just a minute later.

The stand-in keeper did well to parry Corey Mortimer’s cheeky effort but the ball fell kindly for Jake Vernon who netted from close range.

Barton were soon in the lead for the first time as substitute Henry Gill pounced rifle the ball past Mathers from five yards. With eight minutes remaining Sandhu was proactive again as he sent on his last substitute.

He took right back Jordan Hendrie off and sent Kameran Basi on. Basi replaced skipper Asif Hussain at centre back with the captain taking the keeper’s jersey off Mathers who was then pushed up front.

The changes worked as Albion levelled when a Basi free kick was only parried and Ferdinand Annor, who had come on for Habib just after the hour mark, stabbed home from close range.

However, the home side were undone in the latter stages as Hussain was beaten twice, first by a Mather own goal following a free kick near the corner flag and then by a long shot into the unguarded net by Owen four minutes into stoppage time.