10-man Sherwood Colliery steal late victory against Leicester Nirvana

Jamie York's dismissal left them up against it but they struck twice in the last three minutes and boss Wayne Savage said: “Credit to the boys.

“We kept believing and got our rewards. We keep making things so hard for ourselves but today we’ve found a way to win.”

The Wood made two changes to the starting XI, Jack Dando replacing the unavailable Ricky Starbuck and Kieran Wells replacing the departed Aaron Korpal who left the club in the week to join promotion chasing Anstey Nomads.

The first half saw Sherwood generally have the better of things with visitors Leicester Nirvana offering little in the way of an attacking threat.

The Wood were having little luck in creating clear chances, the final ball proving elusive.

The best opportunity fell to Luke Bacon on 20 minutes. Timing his run he latched onto Charlie Taylor’s long ball, but his shot was just over the bar with the goalkeeper well beaten.

Ethan Wiesztort tested the visitor’s goalkeeper Adam Binks with a shot from 20 yards that was tipped around the post after 33 minutes.

From the resulting corner kick Ewan Robson fired just wide.

On 42 minutes a flashpoint saw York shown a red card following a wild kick as a Nirvana player dropped the ball on the field of play when Sherwood tried to take a quick throw-in.

There were no complaints with the decision but quite how Kareem Aburai stayed on the field after grabbing Luke Bacon by the throat and throwing him to the ground really infuriated the home team.

The second half immediately saw things get worse for 10-man Sherwood as on 49 minutes a cross from the left from Andre Raccala was deflected by Warren Squires past the unfortunate Charlie Taylor to give Nirvana the lead.

The Wood kept Nirvana at bay for the most part but were finding chances hard to come by.

Kieran Wells managed to get a shot away on 70 minutes that flew well wide with both Wiesztort, and Gareth Curtis well placed to receive the ball.

Wells was sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes shortly after, reducing Sherwood to nine men.

To the team’s credit Nirvana did not offer any threat during the spell.

On 86 minutes Carter Widdowson hit a 25-yard free kick that Binks again turned wide of the post as Sherwood looked for the equalising goal.

From the corner Wells had a fierce drive well saved by Binks.

The pressure finally told on 87 minutes as Widdowson delivered an excellent corner kick delivery – won by the industry of Jacob Pearce – and Taylor rose to head home to level the game.

It was all Sherwood now and Jobe Shaw was off target from James Matthews' cross as the game entered the final minute of normal time.

Three minutes into time added on, Matthews and Wiesztort combined well, Wiesztort finding the goal-line and delivering the ball for Wells to fire home from close range to give Sherwood the win.