FROME Town threw away a two goal lead as they drew 2-2 at home with St Ives Town this weekend.

The hosts stormed into an early lead when Sam Teale and George Miller notched in the opening 45 minutes.

However complacency began to set in after the interval as the visitors were able to pull one back in the 68th minute through Charlie De’ath, before completing the comeback in the 93rd minute via Josh Dawkins.

For the sixth match in a row, Frome were able to start with the same eleven players and with manager Josh Jeffries back following his stadium ban, they were looking to secure the three home points before a very tough run of games that sees them play nine teams from the top ten in the next nine matches.

On a bitterly cold day with the temperature just above freezing and light snow falling, the match kicked off and Frome could easily have been in the lead within three minutes but Mike Bryant completely missed his volley from five yards as a wicked curling Jon Davies corner found him unmarked in the danger area.

St Ives immediately showed that they posed a threat with a neat, incisive fast moving attack that resulted in a shot across the face of goal, but it was Frome who took the lead in the 10th minute as Teale slid in to toe poke a Jon Davies free kick into the far corner The hosts went very close to a second in the 20th as Bryant thumped a 15 yard shot against the base of the post after Davies had cleverly played the ball back to him, but St Ives then counter attacked with pace and only a great saving tackle from Teale denied them an equaliser.

With St Ives continuing to look good on the counter, Frome they doubled their advantage in the 28th as Davies found Ollie Knight on the left and his ball into the box allowed George Miller to turn and shoot to give Frome a 2-0 lead going into half time.

However, Frome were a little slow to get going in the second half. Chris Gregan replaced Kris Miller due to injury on the hour mark, and despite Jeffries troops launching sporadic raids, St Ives seemed to be getting more and more of the territory and possession.

The pressure told in the 68th as Phillips dived to push away a shot only for the ball to be worked back in from the right and centre back De’ath was on hand to shoot home from close range to make the score 2-1.

St Ives went close again in the 76th and bringing a save from Phillips, Frome really needed to start playing in their opponents half more, and with Darren Jeffries replacing striker Mike Bryant in the 83rd, they started to do that with the midfield now full of players who could run with the ball and cause problems, and there now seemed to be no danger of conceding and more likelihood of a third goal from Frome.

In the third minute of injury time there was a final mass attack thrown at the Frome goal, and despite a good Phillips saves, Dawkins was on hand to shoot home from close range to give the visitors a probably justified share of the points.