THE FA Trophy served up a six-goal thriller at Longmead with the result in doubt right up until the final whistle. Five of the goals had gone in before 20 minutes had elapsed.
Juan Luque opened the scoring for the visitors on nine minutes with a header from a corner.
Two minutes later Dan Thompson equalised, turning in the area and placing the ball wide of Danny Sambridge’s outstretched right arm.
But after a quarter of an hour Heybridge restored their lead with Samuel Bantick scoring from close range following Luque’s break down the left.
Three minutes later Joe Turner levelled again for the Angels with a shot from the edge of the box that gave Stambridge little chance.
The hosts took the lead for the first time in the 20th minute when Turner hit the woodwork and although the Heybridge defence almost managed the clearance, Xavier Vidal pounced on the loose ball to kick it into an empty net.
The second half didn’t quite live up to the quality of the first but Chris Kinnear and Vidal had decent shots on target for the Angels.
The visitors found the equaliser in the 81st minute with Luke Callender forcing his way through the Tonbridge defence, helped by a Callum Adonis-Taylor slip.
Andre McCollin might have won it for the hosts in the 90th minute but saw his header go just wide of the left-hand post.
Angels coach Justin Luchford said: “We’ve gone and scored three goals in nine minutes to defy the critics who say we are not getting enough goals, but then as the home side we’ve conceded three.
“In the second half I didn’t think we kept the ball as well as we should have done and tended to bypass the midfield areas, where with a bit of care we could have hurt them more.”
The Angels now return to Bostik League Premier action on Saturday [November 4] at Enfield.
