Bath City 1 Braintree Town 1

BRAINTREE Town rescued a point in the last minute of stoppage time to avoid defeat at bottom club Bath City this afternoon.

The Iron were awarded a penalty in the fifth minute of injury timne, and although Sean Marks’ spot kick was blocked by keeper Jason Matthews, the striker reacted quickly to slot home the rebound.

For so long it had seemed as though Alan Devonshire’s men would be undone by a fifth minute goal from Sean Canham.

Lewis Hogg latched onto Marley Watkins’ through ball and squeezed his shot past keeper Nathan McDonald, allowing striker Canham to steer home into an unguarded net from just a couple of yards out.

It was Sean Canham’s fifth goal of the season, propelling the Hereford loanee to the top of Bath’s goal-scoring charts, ahead of namesake Marc Canham (four), the ex-Colchester United trainee.

Braintree had sufficient possession and enough chances to at least net an equaliser, before Marks’ last gasp goal.

The agile Matthews kept out a goalbound header by Matt Paine in the first half, and then performed wonders to prevent a superb free-kick by Ben Wright from flying past him on 65 minutes.

A minute later and Iron’s best chance in normal time fell to Andy Yiadom, only for the young winger to head over the bar from point blank range, following Wright’s cross.

Teams

BATH CITY: Matthews, Simpson, Jones, Burnell (sub Preece, 80), Stonehouse, Watkins, M Canham, Connolly, Hogg, Russell (sub Rollo, 89), S Canham (sub Phillips, 82). Unused subs: Cook, Garner.

BRAINTREE TOWN: McDonald, Peters, Paine, Wells, Thomas, Yiadom, Symons, Davis (sub Quinton, 87), Reason (sub O’Connor, 67), Marks, Wright (sub Chilaka, 67). Unused subs: Bailey-Dennis, Jones.

Referee: Mr W Barratt (Bromsgrove)

Attendance: 956