ALBION Sports were seconds away from a huge win in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division promotion race, only to have two points snatched away in a dramatic finale.

Fifth-placed Sports were hosting fourth-placed Rossington Main at Horsfall, with the pair occupying the final two play-off spots and their 1-1 draw on Saturday means they both stay where they were.

Rossington knew a win would take them above Thackley into third, while Albion would have stretched the gap to sixth-placed Garforth Town to four points with victory.

Most of the action was packed into an extraordinary final 10 minutes, but earlier in the game, Hass Gorji had the first decent opportunity, only for the Albion striker to fire over the bar from Robbie Fox’s cross.

But Rossington hit back, sending a good headed chance wide before forcing Eisa Faulding into a brilliant block to keep Albion level.

There was little else to shout about in a cagey first half, but Albion came out firing after the break.

They came close with a couple of free-kicks, one a clever routine, the other a fierce drive from Ash Flynn, but both efforts were saved by the Rossington keeper.

Albion were the dominant side in the second half, but struggled to create any clearcut chances until they finally broke through on 82 minutes.

The prolific Fox crashed in a shot at the near post, which struck both goalposts before finding its way into the net.

Yet moments later, Albion went down to 10 men when Emmerson Cox picked up a second yellow card for a high boot.

And the hosts failed to hold on, as a Liam King screamer found the back of the net in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

In the chaos of the 11 extra minutes or so added on, Albion picked up a sin-bin to go down to nine men, before having a protesting member of coaching staff sent off, but they held on to at least claim a point.

And the pair had good news from Dennyfield at around 5pm on Saturday afternoon, as hosts Thackley surprisingly lost 2-1 at home to mid-table Handsworth, despite dominating the game throughout.

It was a second sorry Saturday in a row for the BD10 outfit, who were thumped 5-1 by Penistone Church in their previous game.

Leon Howarth scored in the opening two minutes for Handsworth on Saturday, before Aaron Moxam added a second for the Sheffield-based side early in the second half.

Player/joint-boss Tom Greaves halved the deficit for Thackley with 15 minutes to go, but the hosts failed to find an equaliser.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Tom Greaves (grounded) had to twist his body brilliantly to score for Thackley, but his goal proved to be in vain.Tom Greaves (grounded) had to twist his body brilliantly to score for Thackley, but his goal proved to be in vain. (Image: Martin Taylor.)

Out-of-form Silsden kept their faint play-off hopes alive, debutant Nash Connolly scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win at rock-bottom Maltby Main.

Neither title-chasing Campion nor relegation-battling Eccleshill United were in action, the former having the weekend off and the latter left frustrated by a waterlogged pitch in BD2.

Meanwhile, Route One Rovers and Steeton had their North West Counties Football League First Division North games, at Ashton Town and Garstang respectively, called off due to waterlogged pitches.

Liversedge and Brighouse Town had their Northern Premier League East Division games rained off too.

Guiseley were on the road at Ashton United in the NPL Premier Division, and took a 1-0 lead through Prince Ekpolo after just six minutes.

But they fluffed several chances, including a Reece Kendall missed penalty, to double their lead, with Ashton coming back into the game and eventually drawing it 1-1 thanks to Alex Byrne’s spot-kick 20 minutes from time.

Finally, in National League North, Farsley Celtic lost 1-0 at leaders Tamworth, with both sides having a man sent off in the second half.

Rudy Misambo’s straight red came in the dying seconds of the game, the Farsley man penalised for a high challenge as the desperate visitors strained to grab a last-gasp equaliser.