Gravesend and N 1 Forest Green 1

SHOULD Gravesend & Northfleet fulfil the bookies' prophesy and narrowly lose their hard-won Nationwide Conference status at the end of the season, they will rue the goal they conceded with the last kick of Saturday's match.

Galvanised by a four-match unbeaten run that included the previous week's hard-chiselled point away to leaders Hereford, the Fleet were set fair for victory and a first clean sheet of the season when they were stung by a sickening Forest equaliser.

Damon Searle's long free kick deep into the Fleet penalty area found a defence caught in suspended animation and Steve Brodie stole in to equalise. Referee Mick McCoy re-started the game and then blew the final whistle.

It was a chronic and inexcusable loss of concentration on the part of the home side whose admirable attempts to escape the clutches of the relegation zone suggested they were good enough to see off a Forest Green side that had won one of their last seven games.

"It was poor defending and very frustrating," said Fleet boss Andy Ford. "Brodie was stuck in the middle of the goal with nobody marking him. If we had marked properly from the free kick, it's three points. Instead, it's a massive two points lost.

"No disrespect to Forest Green, but they weren't the best team to have come here this season so you have to go and get three points. We didn't have enough width in our play and we missed Ben Walshe."

Ford dismissed the theory that there was too much tension in the side, though many supporters seemingly regarded the game as a relegation six-pointer between two of the dwindling number of part-time clubs in the Conference.

Though played at a high tempo, the game was largely uneventful.

Fleet midfielder Rob Owen was out of luck with a well-struck 16th minute drive that Martin Foster headed off the line.

Andrew Drury's second goal for the club, which had a strong suspicion of offside about it, gave Fleet a 70th minute lead. It should have been good enough to win the game until Brodie's late and dramatic intervention.

Gravesend: Wilkerson; Perkins, Shearer, Moore, Skinner; Owen, Gradley, Miller, Drury; Pinnock, Haworth. Substitutions: McKimm for Drury 82 mins, Strouts for Miller 90. Not used: O'Reilly, Duku, Abbey.

Attendance: 1,190.