Hampton and Richmond earn a draw against play-off chasing Oxford City
By Joe Acklam
16th Jan 2023 | Football
Hampton and Richmond were held 1-1 at home by ten-man Oxford City to record their second straight home draw in National League South.
The game was all square at the break despite chances coming at both ends, with the Beavers ending the opening period strongly.
Fernandez headed home from a free-kick ten minutes into the second half, before Hampton missed a penalty shortly before Josh Parker levelled the scores.
A draw for the Beavers and a victory for Chippenham Town means that Hampton are now just one point outside of the National League South relegation zone.
Zac McEachran nearly got the opener after eight minutes when he dribbled beyond a few defenders to work his way into the box and got his shot off, but Tommy Davis did well to deflect it away from danger.
The Beavers were a whisker away from scoring as Shane Dunne put a cross on the head of Dean Inman, and he met it firmly, but the ball flashed just over the crossbar.
Josh Ashby lined up a free-kick just outside the box and hit a wicked dipping shot towards the top corner, but Alan Julian got across his line to push the ball over the bar.
With less than ten minutes remaining in the half Connor Kurran-Browne ran through on goal and tried to slip the ball past Archie Matthews, but the on-loan Swansea City 'keeper stayed big to make the save.
Kurran-Browne threatened again when he escaped down the side and clipped a cross into the middle for Tommy Wood, but his header went wide of the mark.
Kurran-Browne won a free-kick on the edge of the area after 54 minutes and from the resulting set piece, Fernandez rose like salmon above the defenders to power a header into the net.
Then after 65 minutes the Beavers had a penalty after Sam Deadfield was brought down in the penalty area, Deadfield then picked himself up to take the spot kick, but Matthews guessed right and dived low to his right to make the save.
Two minutes later it got worse for the hosts as Joe Iacofino had a shot well saved by Julian, but Parker was on hand to blast home the rebound to level the game up.
The tides turned once more as after 69 minutes Oxford were down to ten after Andre Burley received a second yellow card as he cynically chopped down Kurran-Browne after he had skipped beyond the defender.
Hampton came millimetres from finding the winner as Wood got up and won a header which crashed off the inside of the post before being hooked off the line.
The home side kept pushing for the winner against the ten men of Oxford, but the visitors defended valiantly and put their bodies on the line to ensure there was no clear sight of goal.
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