Ilford 2 Soham Town Rangers 2

ANDY Furnell’s side squandered an opportunity to take all three points against the Isthmian League’s bottom side on Saturday.

Despite going in at half-time a goal down, the Greens moved into the lead as Dan Cotton smashed home from the penalty spot on two occasions in the second half.

Soham couldn’t hold on for the win however, as Ilford snatched a late equaliser to take a share of the spoils.

The draw sees Soham remain in 17th place in the league, with a trip to Chatham Town to come on Saturday.

Ilford’s Jan Skonieski breathed life into a tepid start to the match as he smashed a low drive against the post, while Jose Netinho also had a headed effort well saved.

The home side opened the scoring just a few moments later as Danny Gabriel’s effort deflected off of Martin Bromwich and past Dan Bircham.

Efforts from Stephen Opoka and Robert Carter were cleared off the line as Ilford continued to dominate the early exchanges.

As the half wore on, Soham were able to find some fluency and well struck efforts from boss Andy Furnell and new signing Ben Seymour-Shove were beaten away by the home keeper.

Soham’s late momentum was carried over into the second half as they started brightly but they almost slipped 2-0 behind as Loui Hazelwood saw his curled effort cannon off the crossbar and away to safety.

Parity was finally restored with 25 minutes to play as David Cobb was brought down in the box, with Cotton making no mistake from the spot.

Then, just three minutes later, Cotton was hand to slot home again as the referee awarded a penalty for brining down Seymour-Shove.

With little more than 10 minutes to go however, Opoka stole a march on the Green’s centre-backs to slot home past Dan Bircham.