Pre-season friendly
Taunton Town 2, Bristol Rovers 2
ROSS Staley scored a last-minute goal to rescue a draw for Taunton Town in their opening pre-season friendly of the season, at home to Bristol Rovers in front of a crowd of 417.
New signing Arran Pugh had earlier cancelled out Conor Jones' stunning first-half strike for Rovers, but Dylan McGlade looked to have won it for the visitors until Staley levelled again within a minute.
Taunton manager Leigh Robinson handed starts to four of his new signings - Pugh, Ryan Brett, Ben Adelsbury and Lewis Powell - while Les Afful and Chris McGrath were on the bench.
Taunton Town file out for the first time this season. They're welcomed by a decent sized crowd (vocal as always!) #UpThePeacocks pic.twitter.com/yGIRdaXhqH
— CountyGazetteRich (@CGazette_Rich) July 18, 2017
With Rovers' first team squad in Portugal, the Peacocks set about their young opponents early on, with Powell and new captain Matt Wright linking well up front.
Wright headed against the post from a Shane White cross, but it was Rovers who went into the break ahead as Jones took aim from 25 yards and beat Lloyd Irish with a brilliant effort.
The second half was stop-start as both teams made changes, but on 71 minutes the hosts were level.
White's free-kick found Pugh at the back post, and although goalkeeper Liam Armstrong saved his header, the Taunton man thumped in the rebound.
Irish made a couple of fine stops as his defence struggled with the pace of their opponents, but he could not stop McGlade finding the bottom corner after cutting inside from the right on 89 minutes.
That looked like the winner, but inside a minute a fine move down the Peacocks' right ended with substitute Staley popping up in the middle of the box to grab a last-ditch equaliser from trialist Joe Charles' cross.
Next up for Taunton is the visit of Exeter City on Thursday (July 20, ko 7.45pm).
Taunton Town: Lloyd Irish, Pierce Mitchell, Ryan Brett (Ross Staley 62), Arran Pugh, Matt Villis (Chris McGrath 46), Ben Palmer, Ben Adelsbury, Shane White, Matt Wright (Kailan Gould (trialist) 60), Lewis Powell (Les Afful 60), Ollie Chamberlain (Joe Charles (trialist) 62).
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