Rovers edge closer as North are held

Northerners could only cut the deficit on the leaders by a single point last night in the first of their two games in hand and it required an injury-time equaliser from Archie Drillot to salvage the chocolate-and-blues a 1-1 draw in the final Grand Fort Road derby of the season as, unsurprisingly, Vale Rec were intent on not doing their neighbours any favours.

The result leaves Rovers seven points clear with two games to play, although they have to wait until Tuesday 11 April for the first of those when Rangers visit Port Soif with the final match of their programme at St Peter’s four days later.

North still have three to play, but their hopes now hang by a very frayed thread.

It was a real battle at the Corbet Field last night, packed with incident even if the football was not of great quality.

Both goalkeepers were called into action to make important saves in the first 10 minutes, but first-half chances were at a premium.

Stuart Roussel did have the ball in the net on 24min. but the offside flag had already gone up and North were dealt another blow with the loss of Jack Domaille to injury before the half-hour mark.

That lengthy stoppage meant five minutes of injury time at the end of the half and Joe Blackham, who had just been denied in a one-on-one by James Williams, put Rec ahead in the last of those, tapping in Danny Ozanne’s cross-cum-shot from the right.

Another injury meant a change of referee at the interval as Neil Jarvis was replaced by George Jennings and as the game progressed it became more feisty too.

But North were unable to break Rec down with Christian Povall making one fine save to tip over a Brandon Wallace effort while Williams prevented Glenn Le Tissier making the game safe with a good block at the other.

The Rec captain finished the match in the sin-bin after frustration got the better of him and moments after he was sent there for dissent, North finally found a breakthrough in the 92nd minute as Drillot forced the ball home at a corner.

There was still time for Danny Cooley to flash a ball across the face of the Rec goal, but there was no-one there to turn it in and North’s title hopes have now surely faded away.