ANOTHER excellent performance from a severely-depleted Frome Town side saw them come back from a 1-0 deficit to snatch a point with a goal from Mike Bryant and a man of the match performance in goal from Carl Crabtree, playing his first gameof the season.

Despite Frome’s superb sixth place in the league, the squad has been been very small this season and with a combination of suspensions for Jon Davies, Darren Jefferies, injuries to Dan Cleverley, Jordan Walker and Mitchell Page and with Kyle Phillips, Chris Gregan and Aidan Kirby unavailable, they just about managed to put a side out.

Goalkeeping coach Andy Crabtree’s son Carl took his place between the sticks for his first game of the season.

In front of a good Boxing Day crowd of 366, Frome very nearly took the lead in the second minute as a low Sam Teale header from a George Miller free kick was fumbled off the line by Alex Tokarczyk for a corner.

But the match soon settled into a fairly even affair with Frome probably shading possession and territory, but Basingstoke looking dangerous on the counter attack.

After Marcus Mapstone had picked up a debatable yellow card for a firm tackle, Basingstoke took the lead as the free kick was won at the far post by Aaron Redford and Aaron Jarvis then found himself unmarked in the area and side-footed the ball into the corner of the goal giving Crabtree no real chance.

Frome immediately came back and brought regulation saves from Tokaryczyk with headers from George Miller and Mike Bryant, and Mapstone went close with a downward header following a corner, but the ball never seemed to fall cleanly for a golden opportunity.

Basingstoke very nearly doubled their lead in the 28th as Jarvis bundled over Connor Roberts and raced through on goal, only to be denied by the legs of Crabtree as he dived low to save.

Crabtree produced an excellent double save three minutes later to deny Redford from close range as Basingstoke again threatened and he produced a superb save to tip a free kick over the bar.

Frome survived the scares and brought two more regulation saves from Tokarczyk and with a goal bound Jake Jackson shot being just blocked, that first-ever Boxing Day goal since they joined the Southern League was looking unlikely.

The first minute of the second half saw Basingstoke’s left back George Bennett nudge the ball past his keeper into the net for an own goal, only for the referee to disallow the goal for a nudge on Bennett by Dean Griffiths, and with Bryant going close with a shot and George Miller bringing a save, Frome looked more lively.

With Clayton Green having one of his best matches for Frome in midfield, they started to have all the possession and territory, and it paid off in the 64th minute as Green hit a chipped through ball and Ollie Knight performed an acrobatic miracles to somehow get the ball back into the box and Bryant was on hand to break the jinx and equalise for the home side.

Basingstoke were stung into action following the goal, and Crabtree did very well to come out and save at the feet of the dangerous Nana Ourusu as the winger burst through on goal, and the momentum was now shifting to the visitors.

Basingstokes Joe Gater was shown a yellow card for a foul on Jackson after the referee had played the advantage, and it came back to haunt him a few minutes later as he barged into Crabtree following a corner and he was shown a second yellow and sent off.

Despite the numerical disadvantage, the visitors probably had the best of the last 10 minutes, and with Frome not really having a viable option on the bench, they played no substitutions and the 11 players on the pitch can be justifiably proud of their efforts in extending their unbeten run to six games.