Ryman Division One South

Whyteleafe 2

Ashford Town 2

Leafe shared the points with Ashford, coming from behind to take a point in a game that they could and should have won, taking into account the number of chances created and playing for half an hour against 10 men.

Darren Watson eventually converted a chance near the end, after Ashford looked like holding on to three points with a man down.

They took the game to the visitors in the early exchanges, but it was the visitors who took an early lead.

Ashford won a corner which the Leafe defence were unable to clear away and after a scramble in the box, Laurence Harvey was on hand to score from close range in the sixth minute.

Leafe were back on level terms within two minutes.

Danny Oakins sent Sam Butler clear. His cross into the path of Leon McDowell saw him one-on-one with keeper Darren Ibrahim.

McDowell took the ball round him and appeared to have pushed it too far, but he pulled the ball back from the byeline, then fired home into the bottom corner.

Oakins twice found Jason Goodchild in the box. The first time he headed off target, the second he laid the ball off to McDowell, whose shot hit the post.

Ashford went ahead again in the 21st minute when a penalty was awarded for holding. Mitchell Sherwood sent Robert O'Hara the wrong way.

Leafe were aggrieved in the 29th minute when their claims for a penalty were waved away after a similar offence on Ryan Royston.

Then Leafe thought they had been awarded a penalty but the foul was judged to be inches outside the box.

Butler found Fred Fleming at the far post from the free kick and he really should have score but failed to get a shot in.

O'Hara made a good save from Sherwood before Butler had a 30-yard effort headed out for a corner.

McDowell had a shot blocked by a hand, but in fairness the defender could not have got out of the way. The final chance of the half fell to Oakins a minute before the break, but his shot was well saved.

Early in the second half, an off the ball incident was sparked by a disputed throw-in.

Lee Sidwell and Nick Smith fought for the ball as the linesman gave the throw to Ashford, but the referee gave it to Leafe. Both players received yellows.

Smith did not cash in on his good fortune in not being sent off. Minutes later he received his marching orders for a late lunged with a very late two-footed challenge that gave the referee little option but to send him off.

He then did himself no favours swearing at fans as he left the pitch and kicked out at the dressing room door.

Ashford were condemned to hanging on. For a while it looked as if they may even escape with all three points.

Robbie Kember's 56th-minute free-kick was cleared as far as Rhys Coleman, who shot just wide.

Butler cut inside and had his shot turned behind for a corner.

Boss Stuart Massey made attacking changes. Oakins, Darren Watson, the returning Chris O'Flaherty and McDowell all went close as Leafe piled on the pressure.

The equaliser came in the 78th minute when Watson headed home from a Kember pass.

Later, Fleming headed over from a Butler corner, one of several the hosts could not convert.

Leafe: O'Hara, Fleming, Head (O'Flaherty 65), Sidwell (Platel 76), Coleman R, Royston, Goodchild, Kember, McDowell, Oakins (Watson 68), Butler.