Beeston AFC 5–3 Llandaff Athletic: the draw streak snaps

Match report

Llandaff arrived in good nick, which immediately made them vulnerable. Beeston, by contrast, had spent the season drawing everything in sight, a habit that was always going to break eventually. It broke on Thursday 20 August, and it broke loudly.

Heinrich Dombrowski scored the first at 19 minutes, a tidy finish that settled Llandaff into exactly the sort of controlled performance their recent form had promised. That was the point at which a sensible observer would have predicted a 1-0 and a quiet Thursday evening. Instead, Cleavon Marsh equalised from the spot at 41 minutes. That penalty did not merely level the scores, senior football people will tell you, it also woke the crowd up in a way that could not be undone (1). Reuben Edgcumbe, who is becoming something of a specialist in that very specific near-half-time window, scored eight minutes later to make it 2-1 at the break. Issue two hundred and whatever this season. Still just about in contention for top-eight. Anyway.

Niklas Wernicke equalised at 47 minutes, a response that had the look of a team who had already done their maths. But Edgcumbe scored again at 56, assisted by Marsh, and suddenly Beeston were doing the kind of attacking football that does not normally feature in their draw-heavy portfolio. Jean-Baptiste Levavasseur added a header at 66 from Bruno Costantini's cross and that, you felt, was that. A two-goal cushion with 24 minutes left. Safe.

Raphael Vermeulen-Brand scored at 89 minutes and the cushion became a wobble. Beeston's history of sharing points hung in the air, not quite deployed but certainly felt. Then Lucão Ribeirão headed in at 90, assisted by Höcherl-Krenn, and the wobble became a shrug.

Five goals, three conceded, three points. The table does not yet know what to do with Beeston and neither, it seems, do they. Plenty of time to reset? No. The next matchday comes tomorrow, and the nerves from that 89th minute will still be warm.