It’s all Rover now – rally is just too late

United Counties League Division One

Eynesbury Rovers 2

Bugbrooke St Michaels 3

A LATE rally could not spare Eynesbury's blushes as they went down to their first defeat of the season, on Saturday.

Manager Dean Shipp bemoaned his side's defending after they allowed the visitors to take a three-goal lead before Rovers pulled two late goals back.

The home side edged a tight first half with Ross West forcing visiting goalkeeper Steve Spruels into action and Ricky Taylor drilling wide from 18 yards.

Bugbrooke's Adam Slaymaker had two good openings but solid defending from Eynesbury snuffed out the opportunities. Sean Daly came closest to breaking the deadlock for the visitors when his looping header clipped the top of the bar.

The best chance of the half fell to Rovers' Peter Collins but his attempted chip flew over the crossbar while Dan Woodhead headed wide a Craig Smith free kick for the home side.

The match sprung into life in the 57th minute when Daly gave the visitors the lead with a close range strike and just six minutes later Adrian Spruels doubled the advantage with a looping header.

Spruels then twice shot wide as the visitors dominated and the forward bagged his second of the match on 82 minutes with a low drive to seemingly wrap up the victory.

Rather than lie down, the third goal seemed to galvanise Eynesbury and they began an unlikely fightback when Peter Collins drove a shot against the crossbar.

In the 89th minute more good work down the right from Collins set up West to pull one back with a low drive.

Three minutes into added time Barry Albone slotted home after a Collins shot was parried by the Bugbrooke keeper but it was too little, too late for the home side.

Manager Dean Shipp said: "The two late goals gave us some hope but when you play poorly defensively you get punished so we can't have any complaints about the scoreline."

Eynesbury's next fixture sees them travel to Peterborough Northern Star on Saturday.