Dover Athletic 2 Harrow Borough 2

AN EQUALISER in injury time deprived Whites of two valuable points on Tuesday night. It was a lucky goal for the visitors as the scorer Dean Marney clearly looked offside.

While Whites were denied a victory, few fans would argue that they only played in fits and starts.themselves into a winning position.

It had all begun so brightly for Dover when they took the lead on 14 minutes. A slick interchange between Dean Palmer and Victor Renner set up home debutant Paul Armstrong to fire in a goalbound effort that was deflected behind for a corner.

But Armstrong only had to wait a matter of seconds for his first goal in a white shirt. He evaded the marking to nod home Daniel Braithwaite’s inswinging flag kick from the left.

Whites might have given themselves a little breathing space had Victor Renner’s lob registered, rather than been hacked off the line by Boro skipper Marney.

But from that point, as the pace and close control of Abdulai Yoki became a factor that Whites found difficult to contain, Boro came into the game more and more as the first half progressed.

Indeed, their first sight of goal should have resulted in an equaliser when only Dominique Jean-Zepharin's fine point blank save denied Fabio Valenti. And after going close on another couple of occasions, Boro’s purple patch duly yielded an equaliser after Craig Cloke was adjudged to have impeded Valenti just outside the box.

From the resulting free kick, full back Jesper Nielsen drove a venomous free kick through the wall. And while Jean-Zepharin got both hands on the ball, he couldn’t prevent it from creeping into the bottom left hand corner.

If the first half was entertaining enough, the second deteriorated as a spectacle as both sides struggled to make their passes count. However, Whites looked to have won it when they regained the lead after an hour’s play.

A well crafted goal it was too, as Renner’s powerful run down the right took him to the deadball line where he cut back a perfect cross. And as Matt Carruthers nodded the ball back across goal, Nick Grimes headed the ball past ‘keeper Jon Ashwood from barely a yard out.

From the Dover perspective, the game’s remaining half hour was hugely disappointing. It always looked as though they would need a third goal to win it, but seldom looked like getting one.

By contrast, Boro’s policy of playing long balls into the channels for their pacy front men to chase often looked likely to pay a dividend. And, after a good stop by Jean-Zepharin and a superb last ditch tackle by Craig Cloke had twice denied substitute John Bacon, Boro duly got their reward in stoppage time.

Although Wayne Walters' 60 yard diagonal ball was of the highest quality, it seemed as though the flag just had to be raised as Marney got on the end of it to bear down on goal. When the flag stayed down, Marney thumped the ball emphatically past Jean-Zepharin to level the scores. And whilst Boro deserved their point, that fact didn’t make the final score even remotely less painful.

Dover: Jean-Zepharin, Grimes, Cloke, Palmer (Readings 87), Shearer, Braithwaite, Carruthers, Maynard, Wilkins (Vallance 78), Renner, Armstrong. Subs not used: J Rogers, P Rogers, Spiller.

Attendance: 503