Fossoway were literally seconds away from the perfect start to the League in 2020 before a calamitous mix up robbed the Foss of a momentous win against bogey side Bowhill Rovers.
The opening of the game seemed to be largely one-way traffic towards the Fossoway goal with Bowhill showing why they are such difficult opponents. After already having a couple of chances, the visitors did take the lead in the 22nd minute when Kyle Fenton slotted home from close range at the near post.
Their joy was short-lived as Charlie Marshall capped off his birthday in midweek with an equaliser as he finished well on the left hand side after being provided with the effort thanks to the hard work of Andrew Reade on 29 miuntes.
The Foss defence was manfully keeping Bowhill at bay, with Liam Munro and Kieran Wilson both shining alongside Kev Crookston and Bertie Gonsales. They were admirably weathering the Bowhill storm.
The home side ended up the half going into a surprise 2-1 lead after a break which saw Ciaran Reilly through on goal and being brought down just inside the box. Bowhill avoided the almost-certain red card for the last man challenge, but Wilson made them pay when he fired home the 42nd minute resultant spot kick low past the keeper.
Bowhill started the second half strongly again with Celentano bringing a save out of Mark Robertson on 51 minutes before netting their equaliser on 54 minutes when Craig Lowe beat Robertson to the ball and looped it over the keeper's head and ran on to tap home. Further chances came Bowhill's way that they should have really done better with, Celentano himself missing a good chance when through one-on-one with Robertson but firing wide.
It was a double change around the 70 minute mark that provided the catalyst with Jamie Forrester and then Andrew Smith making an appearance. It didn't take long for the two of them to combine in the 76th minute when Smith broke on the left, laid the ball back to Forrester who curled a spectacular effort into the far corner. It was a brilliant finish and would have been worthy of winning any game, but alas it wasn't to be.
Saying that, Fossoway missed four gilt-edged chances to put the game to bed. Firstly a Smith free-kick from the edge of the area deflected off the wall and behind on 79 minutes. From the resultant corner, Gonsales couldn't get enough power to the header to overly trouble the Bowhill keeper.
Then on 81 minutes Reilly should have done better when put through one-on-one at goal, but the keeper pulled off a fine save to deny the Foss number 10. Moments later Scott Powrie showed good skill by flicking the ball over a defender's head in the area and run onto unfortunately volley his effort just inches wide of the far post.
The defence were holding firm for a long-awaited first win over Bowhill for quite some time with the visitors piling on the pressure. Deep into injury time a high ball into the box saw Simon Sanagahan and a Bowhill forward collide. Understandably there were penalty shouts and everyone seemed to momentarily freeze. Sanagahan had the ball at his feet for what felt like an eternity when all realised the ball was still live, he tried to flick it up to clear the danger but inexplicably his clearance smacked off the head of Gonsales and flew into the back of the net.
It was absolute gut-wrenching to happen with literally the last kick off the game. It was a valiant display from Foss all over the park against tough opponents and a lot of positives should be drawn from the performance. In particular, barring the last minute blip, the defence had been solid and performed well, with Liam Munro picking up the Man of the Match display winning every header in the air and a dominant display.
If you had said we'd get a point off Bowhill before the game, we probably would have been happy with that. But to lose a 93rd minute goal in that manner makes the game feel like a defeat. But we pick ourselves up, take the positives and move on!
