FC Isle of Man suffered late heartbreak on Saturday as West Didsbury & Chorlton scored a late winner at Brookburn.
The defeat was the Ravens’ first in seven and saw them drop one place to ninth.
Starting the game on the back foot, keeper Ben Wilkinson tripped Victor Abadaki in the second minute to give the home side a penalty.
On this occasion familiar foe Jordan Lazenbury’s penalty went to Wilkinson’s right, hit both posts and came back out to be cleared.
As Callum Sherry’s driving run earned the Ravens some much needed respite with a freekick, when that was cleared West Dids’ breakaway saw Max Sutton’s deep cross pushed on to the frame of the goal.
With the home side dominating the game, Tom Murray opened the scoring just after 25 minutes as a corner was half cleared and his shot from 30 yards went under Wilkinson and into the back of the net to give his side a deserved lead.
Wilkinson would make up for that error before the break as he did well to save and hold Billy Matthews’ header after he was given too much room in the box to ensure it was only 1-0 at the break.
Whatever Paul Jones said at half time had the desired effect as the Ravens came out flying in the second half and were level inside four minutes.
With Danny Gerrard fouled, Jack McVey lined it up from about 35 yards and with everyone expecting a cross he expertly bent a low freekick round the wall and into the bottom corner, 1-1.
As the Ravens controlled much of the second half, West Dids’ Oliver Martin frustrated efforts to take the lead while Lazenbury should have scored at the other end when he skied a knocked down ball over the bar.
Despite the Ravens’ possession, West Dids would go close again as a breakaway saw Murray hit the post with a delicious strike just before the 70th minute mark.
Wilkinson then was called on to make a good stop as Kristian Holt’s header was only stopped by a big hand from Big Ben.
How the Ravens didn’t take the in the 83rd minute only one man knows as Martin made a stunning stop to deny Ste Whitley a goal as he dived down to his left to get a fingertip on a driving effort that seemed to everyone to be goalbound.
From there the home side broke and Billy Matthews pounced on a knockdown as he took one touch to settle himself and a second to slide past Wilkinson to make it 2-1.
As the Ravens went looking for an equaliser, Martin denied Whitley again as he tipped a header round the post, before Charlie Higgins’ header was only denied by the post.
That proved to be the last chance saloon for the Ravens who were left rueing a first half performance which they were unable to overcome in a dominant second half.
FC Isle of Man will be in action on Tuesday night away at Abbey Hey, kick off is 19:45, follow updates on the club’s Twitter (X) account.
All pictures: Graham Smith
