Swans Manager Tom Speers praised striker Marley Thomas after the Swans recovered from a two goal deficit to Evesham. After Jordan Lymm and Kyle Belmonte had put the visitors ahead, two goals from Thomas, the second in the 94th minute, salvaged a point for Slimbridge.
'Marley’s been superb recently – what he’s done is he taken things upon himself – he’s got himself fitter and worked on being an attribute to the team. I said to him that he can always add to this team, you’ve got the experience – he’s been there, done that, and now he’s actually putting it out there. The proof is in the pudding, he’s scoring goals, he’s making assists, which is what we wanted from him. '
The game started at a frantic pace, although there were very few first half opportunities for either side - On 18 minutes, James Sunley was off target for the Swans, while four minutes pater, Belmonte forced a save from Lewis Adams as the visitors pressed.
As the game approached the half hour, Lymm had an effort deflected for a corner, and on 36 minutes latched onto a pass from Belmonte to put Evesham ahead.
As Evesham had the momentum, Dan Griffiths was wide with a header before the first half was brought to a close.
The first period of the second half also belonged to the visitors, and on 65 minutes, Belmote was allowed too much space to slip the ball past Lewis Adams and double the Evesham lead.
This sparked Slimbridge into life, and it was just three minutes later that Thomas latched onto a superb pass from Jack Holmes to drill home past Evesham Keeper Fraser Barnsley and halve the deficit.
The momentum of the game completely changed, and it was all Slimbridge for the final third of the game - the lineup was shuffled with Nathan Dennis and Edji Mbunga replacing Ban Hands and James Sunley, and the home side started to create the better chances.
Evesham's last decent effort came on 70 minutes, when Alfie Dunn forced Adams into a good save, but at the other end, Holmes, Thomas and Ethan Dunbar all went close.
As the game reached the fourth minute of stoppage time, Thomas chased down another piercing through ball from Mbunga, and nodded the ball over Barnsley to level the scores.
The Swans could even have nicked it on their last attack the game, when Thomas' cross was just an inch too far for Dylan Lewis to connect properly, and his effort slipped just the wrong side of the post.
Tom Speers was generous in his praise for Evesham after the game - 'First of all, I thought it was a really really good game of football – it’s probably only the second or third times that both teams want the ball and want to play with it - Fordy has done a great job, it’s a completely different team that we played last year, although they have a lot of the same players. They set up a little differently to what we thought – which kind of threw us a little bit.
In the first half I thought they were brilliant – they controlled the tempo of the game, they strung passes together, they moved us across and they scored a great little goal.
And when they came out it was a similar story in the second half – but we just said to the boys that they need to believe in themselves, I don’t know how many times I’ve said that.
We’re that Jekyll and Hyde team, but after they scored the second one, we got on the front foot, and we found a bit of determination. We’d lost the last three, so it was important we got something tonight. It’s a great point, when at the end of the day, we were two nil down.'
Slimbridge travel to AFC Totton on Saturday - a supporters coach leaves Thornhill Park at 10am, fare is £10 per person.
The Under 18's are in action on Friday (14th October, 7.30pm) when they host Hereford Pegasus in the HFA Giantkillers Cup at Thornhill Park.
Team: Adams, Holmes, Prictor, Turner, Geddes, Hands (Mbunga 76), Shutt, Francis (Lewis 85), Dunbar, Sunley (Dennis 76), Thomas
Goals: Thomas 65, 90+4
Supporters Man Of the Match: Marley Thomas
