Llandaff Athletic 1–1 Stepney FC: a brief disruption

Stepney arrived second on 55 points and in form the league has stopped commenting on. Llandaff arrived 13th, in form they would rather keep to themselves. The earlier meeting this season finished 1-0: for an hour of this one, history looked content to repeat itself with better weather. The first half was goalless. For Llandaff, that was an achievement. For Stepney, it was a clerical error.

2/ 56'. Stepney took the lead. Damien Compère-Morel has a habit of scoring at awkward hours, the 84th minute five days ago, the 90th before that. This header, from Arthur Fortesque's delivery, arrived a modest 27 minutes from full time and looked sufficient. Stepney, 0-1 up and purring, held the ball the way a collector keeps a first edition: unnecessarily.

3/ Llandaff spent that stretch doing what they have done all fortnight, chasing, occasionally lunging, and playing as though the fixture list had already been filed. It stayed eleven against eleven throughout. In this league, surviving a full game at full strength is itself a small trophy.

4/ 83'. Penalty. Raphael Vermeulen-Brand, three goals in his previous three matches and uncharacteristically quiet since the hour, stepped up and levelled with the composure of a man who has seen these afternoons before. 1-1. The ground exhaled: the away end revised its forecasts.

The equaliser flattered Llandaff's afternoon and annoyed Stepney's records. Neither side gets to dwell. Matchday 33 is a day away, the same fixture list, freshly laundered nerves, and a league that does not believe a result should ever be left to settle.

Developing.