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City faced a 3rd game in 7 days against a Quorn side who had started the season with a win and a draw in their first two games. With Taylor Parr and Scott Bridges out of the squad, it looked like it was going to be a tough evening.
The NPL Midlands Division newcomers started the game brightly with lots of attacking intent but with very little bite. For all their slick passing and movement there was no real end product but City were becoming increasingly frustrated as they were unable to create any real chances of their own in the first half of the match.
The breakthrough came 5 minutes before half-time when a lucky ricochet set the away team free down the left, the cross evaded every City defender before Paddy Webb tapped in at the far post for a deserved half-time lead.
The second half started with Robbie taking off Stefan Broccoli and replacing him with Peterborough United loanee, Lewis Darlington. The new man made an immediate impact
as he went for a header inside the box only to be clattered by the keeper after the ball had gone. The header was cleared off the line via the crossbar and City were awarded a penalty.
Dan Cotton stepped up and smashed the ball home for the equaliser on 50 mins.
Stan Leech then came on for Ryan Ingrey in attack and it wasn't long before he was in on the action, a header directed narrowly wide and then a melee in the box that Leech couldn't quite get the finishing touch to.
Quorn were still looking dangerous on the break and on 73 minutes another cross that evaded the City defence was met again at the far post by Paddy Webb for an almost identical goal to his first-half effort and Quorn were once again a goal to the good.
Down to 10 men after losing a player to injury and unsurprisingly, no Quorn substitutes available. The away side were happy to waste time at any opportunity going down after every meaty challenge, and it was in the 90th minute that Jack Samples did exactly that. After a great challenge in the box from Jake Battersby and already on a yellow card for dissent in the first half, the Quorn number 10 inexplicably hauled the city man to the ground as they both tried to get to their feet and then kicked the ball away for good measure. Second yellow, down to 9 men.
With 7 minutes of time wasting to make up for, City threw everything at the Quorn defence, and on 96 minutes, Battersby delivered the best cross of the game that found the head of Lewis Darlington, whose well directed effort looped over the keeper into the far corner of the net rescuing a point for the Lilywhites.
All in all, a less than tasty encounter but the points were shared, and we roll onto our next fixture, away to Loughborough Dynamo.
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