Crookes United 2–2 Pendle Athletic: a failure of security

Match report

Crookes United contrived to turn two goals and a stranglehold on the game into a single, grubby point, which is a long way from a crisis but a fairly reliable way to keep the lower third of the table in view. Pendle Athletic, ambling along in 13th on 43 points with the air of a side that has seen this film before and did not enjoy the ending, will take the draw and consider themselves slightly ahead of schedule.

The first half-hour had the statistical footprint of a game trying to keep its options open, until Sebastian Dewhurst and Allan Cariri-Filho produced the sort of combination that has become worryingly routine. Dewhurst, who had already scored inside the hour against Mancunia on Monday, slipped a pass through a crowded box on 33 minutes, and Cariri-Filho, who specialises in the late, decisive intervention, made no mistake. The goal settled a half that had been drifting towards the interval on statistics alone, and it gave Crookes a lead they had done little to merit beyond taking their one clear chance.

If the first goal came from a sustained spell of pressure, the second was carved from a more patient brand of theft. Dewhurst doubled the lead on 62 minutes, arriving late to convert a loose ball and bring his own personal contribution to three goals in as many days, a run of form that defies the general fatigue of this fixture list. The scoreline felt secure, which should have been the first warning sign.

Pendle, to their credit, never conceded the shapeshift. Cristian Sorrentino-Bruno rose to meet a fine Stewart Ashmore cross on 72 minutes and beat the keeper with a header of genuine conviction, and the game changed in the way these games always change once the arithmetic gets complicated. Ashmore, perhaps feeling left out, then scored the equaliser himself on 85 minutes, stroking home from a Honorio Otálora pass to complete a stirring comeback. Giancarlo Borghesi's second yellow in stoppage time had all the consequence of a resigned sigh.

The sample size of a single game is small, but the evidence from two meetings this season is that these sides are evenly matched. The draw does neither side any good, though it does no harm either, which may be the most damning thing one can say about a point at home from two goals up. Pendle will be the happier, and that should worry nobody as much as Crookes United. One might argue that the comeback showed grit, but the evidence suggests it was simply a Crookes collapse.