An injury time leveller saw ten man Biggleswade United grab a deserved share of the spoils at Bell Close, as the Ducks dropped another two points at home having built themselves a winning position.
Lacklustre for most of the game, Aylesbury had gone behind to a screamer of a Russell Preston free-kick after the break, before Stacey Field struck twice in their favour. Yet they came unstuck in the face of strong late pressure, with Ibrahim Fuseini joyfully firing home a volley in the dying seconds.
After their midweek defeat at Holyport, the Aylesbury management team elected for a new-look 4-3-3 shape with Jack Wood moving into midfield and Tom Barnett back in the side instead of Joey Acheampong.
Whether the experiment was successful is a cause for debate, but the Ducks were unquestionably better in the second half once natural wingers Joey Acheampong and Lewis Hallford entered the fray.
The opening period was fairly uneventful, Field poking an effort straight at the keeper after eight minutes, whilst Warren Garcia skewed a shot wide of the target having won the ball back four minutes on.
Midway through the half Biggleswade had a couple of long range attempts – their first of the game – through Quintero-Lerna first who fired well wide, and then Ngongou whose shot Jack Sillitoe got everything behind.
Ben Baines then called visiting stopper Adam Lawrence into serious action with a low left-footed effort which was expertly tipped wide.
The major talking point of the half came just as the match ticked into the 45th minute, when Sean Murray was shown a straight red card for an off the ball altercation with Kyal McNulty, the reasoning later emerging as an ‘elbow’ on the Aylesbury man.
Half-time: Aylesbury 0-0 Biggleswade
After the half-time break the Ducks began with some much needed urgency in their play, but there was still little to choose between the sides and it was near-impossible to tell it was 11 vs 10.
Tom Barnett collected his 10th booking of the campaign, for kicking the ball away, whilst another wayward effort from Quintero-Lerna were the limited offerings in the first fifteen minutes of the half.
Aylesbury then made a double change when they threw on Acheampong and Hallford and returned to their more balanced looking 4-4-2 system.
Unfortunately though, Acheampong’s first involvement was to make a heavy challenge and from the resulting free-kick up stepped Russell Preston who delivered a screamer that left Sillitoe no chance. 1-0 Aylesbury
Both sides had further chance to score in the immediate aftermath of the goal, Acheampong’s low shot on the turn easily dealt with by Lawrence, and Barnett firing wide for Aylesbury having been teed up by Field, whilst at the other end some neat interplay ended with a rising near post shot from Preston caught by Sillitoe.
The visitors’ lead lasted less than ten minutes, as Field levelled for the Ducks. The goal owed a lot to Acheampong’s persistence, as he brought the ball a long way before it fell kindly for Field to turn and place neatly into the bottom corner. 1-1
Better was to come for the Ducks as they went ahead soon afterwards. A calamitous moment at the back saw Jaward and Lawrence get in a horrible mess from a long ball, and Field nipped in to accurately roll the ball past the men on the line. 2-1 Aylesbury
Aylesbury, against ten men, should have been home and dry having turned what had been an overall lacklustre performance into a winning position.
But Biggleswade came back strongly with a surge of late attacking pressure, and Sillitoe had to be at his best to deny Martin Russell at point blank range with a fine save.
Disaster struck in stoppage time though as the Ducks just couldn’t hold out. A ball in from the right wasn’t cut out by United’s backline, and Fuseini had room in the box to turn and joyously volley into the net. 2-2
With no time remaining full-time quickly followed, and Biggleswade were able to celebrate their well deserved point on another disappointing afternoon for the Ducks.
