St Neots Town launched a terrific second-half turnaround to claim a Football League scalp on Tuesday night.
The Southern League Premier Division side found themselves trailing 2-0 at the break against League Two visitors Stevenage at the Premier Plus Stadium.
But it was a different story in the second period as Saints, under the control of assistant boss Matty Haniver with manager Matt Clements away, hit four unanswered goals to triumph 4-2.
Rowan Liburd put Stevenage into a 12th minute lead before Danny Watson saw a weak penalty easily saved after a handball offence. A trialist then doubled the visitors’ lead seven minutes before the break.
But Stevenage made half-a-dozen changes at the break and that allowed St Neots, who themselves lost defender Taylor Parr to injury early in the second half, to take the initiative.
Parr halved their arrears with a header from a Dylan Williams corner to launch the transformation before fellow defender Liam McDevitt leveled after Watson fired against a post.
They hit the front when a long Johnny Herd throw took a touch off a Stevenage defender on its way into the net and the same supply line was responsible for the clincher as Lee Clarke nodded in another Herd launch.
Williams, a former Cambridge United youngster who played under Haniver when at AFC Sudbury last season, was an impressive performer.
He is an attacking player who has been on the club’s radar for much of the summer and also played in a 1-0 defeat at Mildenhall last Saturday.
Another member of the Saints attack on Tuesday – Adam Marriott – is well out of the reach of clubs at this level.
Marriott snubbed a new deal at Lincoln after helping them to National League glory last season and is currently getting game-time in the local area. He played for Godmanchester Rovers and Royston Town in the previous week.
St Ives Town were also emphatic winners on Tuesday night as they thumped a Peterborough United youth side 5-0.
Summer signing James Hall hit a first-half brace to sandwich a strike from fellow frontman Danny Kelly.
Phil Draycott, netting for the second successive summer fixture, and youngster Tiago Dias added further goals in the second period.
Eynesbury Rovers suffered a 5-2 defeat at the hands of higher-level Bedford Town on Tuesday night. Dom Lawless and Rob Ducket were the local side’s scorers.
And Godmanchester Rovers shared four goals at lower-level Eaton Socon in an all-local friendly.
Tom Moran and Tom Spark provided the equalisers for Rovers with Lee Bassett and Luke Swain putting the hosts ahead on two occasions.
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