If football matches lasted the same length of time as rugby then St Ives Town would have been celebrating a second successive win in the Southern League.

As it was three goals in the final 10 minutes at Westwood Road left them on the end of a 4-2 loss to Hednesford Town.

Liam Cross and Ed Hottor had put them into a 2-1 half-time lead and they held on to that advantage until Chay Tilt, scorer of the Pitmen's first, equalised on 81 minutes against the run of play.

Shaquille Master had let fly from 25 yards and although Ben Heath got down to make the save, Tilt followed it up from a narrow angle.

Just 60 seconds later and before Ives had the chance to settle down Master took aim again, this time from 30 yards, and this time his radar was bang on the money as the ball bounced off the post and in.

Ives threw caution to the wind after that to try and rescue at least a point and Cross almost did just that, his effort beating goalkeeper Jonathan Brown but blocked just before the line by Josh Endall.

But it was Hednesford who scored next, debutant Riley O'Sullivan pouncing on a header by Brett Solkhon to rub salt into the wounds.

The visitors had started brightly and should have taken the lead when they were awarded a penalty for handball against Solkhon.

When Courtney Richards finally got round to taking the kick, some two minutes after its award, he thundered his effort off the crossbar.

And within minutes it was Ives who had the lead, Urijah Gordon-Douglas crossing from the right for Cross to slam home.

It was short-lived though, Tilt darting in ahead of Heath after a cross had been deflected up in the air, but by the interval they were in front again.

Nabil Shariff's shot from the edge of the box was blocked but the ball ran to Hottor who unleashed a screamer that took a nick off a Hednesford defender on its way to goal.

The expected pressure from the visitors didn't come and Ives were starting to build confidence of backing up their midweek success against Hitchin Town.

Dylan Williams and Camron McWilliams both went close before the sting in the tail, dropping them to third from bottom.