It was a mixed evening last night as Will Groocock rescued a point for Ivanhoe with a last minute equaliser.
The boys came out the blocks quick, and went ahead early on after Ash Garner won the ball in midfield and played it in to Danny Quinn on the right hand side of the box, his powerful shot was well saved and parried out to Chris Acott, who finished emphatically from a tight angle into the top corner of the goal.
Our lead was very quickly nearly doubled as Acott flicked the ball around his man, beat him with his pace and then delivered into the path of Quinn, only for a last ditch tackle to stop his shot being unleashed 10 yards out.
Chances were aplenty and again it was Acott causing the problems as he single handily took on the Sporting midfield and back line passing 3 men with ease, he then switched the ball from his left to right, but his shot was straight at the goalkeeper.
Josh Thomas was lively down the left hand side and his deliveries across the 6 yard line area were causing the home defence to scramble and clear their lines.
Ivanhoe went in deservedly ahead at the break, and our hosts would have been delighted that they were still in the game.
Wolverhampton looked a different side 2nd half, and they put us under a prolonged period of pressure from the restart but were holding solid with Holmes and Hughes heading everything away at the heart of our defence.
Tommy Dyche had to be called into action after a relatively quiet first half to punch away a dangerous ball across our box, and a flurry of corners were cleared by Harry Stewart and Ross McGarry.
Their pressure paid off on the 62nd minute as Jake Conkay found himself the wrong side of the attacker and a clash of legs caused the referee to point to the spot, their captain, Nathan Walker, stepped up and put the spot kick into the bottom right corner of the net.
Ivanhoe had looked to have ridden the wave of Sporting pressure and came extremely close to retaking the lead when Acott headed back into the box from far post to Thomas, he was given bundles of time to take his shot which hit the post and somehow flew straight into the arms of the goalkeeper.
Another chance came for Ashby as Conkay combined down the right wing with Garner, Conkay’s cross found Quinn whose shot was fantastically blocked yards from the goal line.
A moment of magic from the hosts’ Jacob Gwilt saw them go ahead as he struck a sensational effort from distance into the top corner, which multiple goalkeepers wouldn’t have kept out!
In the dying seconds of the game, Will Groocock was fed through by second half sub Will Robson, and Groocock kept his calm to slot past the advancing keeper to earn us a point.
We now look forward to welcoming Hinckley AFC to the NFU on Saturday.