MALVERN Town rescued a late point to draw at Hartpury after coming from behind to beat Shaftesbury.
The Hillsiders maintained their unbeaten start to the season courtesy of Joe Tumelty’s injury-time equaliser at Hartpury Stadium.
Tumelty drew Malvern level when he scored direct form a corner deep into injury time after Levi Francis’s early goal put the visitors ahead.
That came after the Hillsiders inflicted a first defeat of the season on Shaftesbury as Charlie Johnson’s late goal earned Malvern the points after Harry Clark drew the home side level.
The results mean Malvern sit second in the Southern League Division One South table, two points behind leaders Bishops Cleeve.
Lee Hooper’s side took the lead against Hartpury after 10 minutes as Francis curled a low effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area after good work from Piers Walton down the right.
The visitors almost doubled their lead soon after only for Ryan Smallwood to deny Luke Salter from inside the box.
Veteran striker Ryan Brunt then saw his audacious overhead kick travel narrowly wide of the post after Dion Molyneux flicked on Johnson’s long throw.
Hartpury stopper Smallwood then produced a fine double save to twice deny Salter before the hosts cleared a third effort off the line.
And Malvern saw another effort cleared off the line just past the half-hour mark after Salter rounded the goalkeeper only for George Sims to clear the midfielder’s effort from a tight angle.
Hartpury made the visitors pay for those missed chances on 33 minutes as Billy Osborn poked Sol Kent’s cross from the right into the net at the second attempt.
And Hillsiders stopper Seth Locke then made a crucial save to deny Osborn a second goal when one-on-one shortly before the break.
The home side went close again early in the second period as Nathan Jenkins curled a shot inches past the post.
Malvern continued to soak up Hartpury pressure and saw two penalty shouts turned down by the referee.
Hartpury looked to have snatched the points on 89 minutes as Tomos Shyamapant finished off a counter attack.
However, the Hillsiders equalised six minutes into injury time when substitute Tumelty scored direct from a corner to leave the home side stunned.
Malvern are next in action against Melksham Town on Saturday, August 30 with kick-off at 3pm at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium.
