Warrington Town manager on draw with Farsley Celtic

The unlikeliest source of goalkeeper Dan Atherton proved to be Town’s hero as having been sent forward for a corner in the game’s dying seconds, he headed home Sean Williams’ delivery to snatch a point from Farsley Celtic.

> Town 1 Farsley Celtic 1 - full verdict on another dramatic night at Cantilever Park

Goalkeeper Dan Atherton leaps highest to head home Sean Williams' corner and score Town's dramatic equaliser (Image: Sean Walsh)

He had little to do before that aside from picking Clayton Donaldson’s first-half opener out of his net and could only watch on as the outfield players in front of him wasted several chances to equalise, including a penalty miss from Bohan Dixon.

However, Atherton emerged as the scarcely believable hero to ensure Town’s unbeaten run stretched to five National League North games and six in all competitions.

“What I’m pleased about is the quality of Sean Williams in the dying seconds, putting in the kind of ball we can attack,” Beesley said.

“Dan is good in the air and attacks the ball because that’s what he’s used to doing in his own box.

“He gets on the end of it and it goes in, but we deserved that little bit of luck.

“They had one chance from a long throw and they scored from it, which we’re really disappointed with.

“We’re conceding from set-pieces a lot, which is something we need to eradicate if we’re to go forward.

“We shouldn’t have had to rescue a point. At times, we played some really stuff and we’ve created 10 good chances.

“We’ve obviously had the penalty miss, Jordan (Buckley) has come on and had chances, Mossy (Josh Amis) has had chances, Isaac (Buckley-Ricketts) has had chances – a point is the least we deserved.

“It’s a sickener for them as it came so late, but it was more than deserved.”

It is the second time Town have rescued an injury-time draw from a midweek home game this season, with last month’s 3-3 draw with Spennymoor Town featuring a 95th-minute leveller from former loanee Dylan Mottley-Henry.

They have also fought back from losing positions to earn points from Alfreton Town and South Shields in recent weeks, with the latter having come despite Andy White being sent off after just 10 seconds and having fallen two goals behind.

As such, Beesley says the character within his dressing room is there for all to see as they backed up from the weekend’s 400-mile round trip to Bishop’s Stortford, which saw them win 4-1.

“We kept going and it showed the character and togetherness we’ve got in the team,” he said.

“They kept pushing for 96 minutes and I think if the game goes on a couple of minutes longer, we probably get another chance.

“The long trip on Saturday took it out of us physically and mentally, so to come straight into a Tuesday game is tough.

“A point isn’t the end of the world and it keeps our little mini-run going, but we’d have liked three and we’re probably a little disappointed that we didn’t get them.”

One disappointment was the spurning of the glorious chance to level just four minutes after Donaldson’s opener after Isaac Buckley-Ricketts was hauled down in the penalty area.

However, Bohan Dixon’s spot-kick was saved by Farsley stopper Zan-Luk Leban, meaning he has now missed both of the penalties he has taken this season having hit the crossbar from 12 yards against Blyth Spartans in August.

The midfielder has been Town’s chosen penalty taker for some time, but Beesley hinted at a potential change going forward.

“Bohan has been our nominated penalty taker for a while, but there will be a discussion now,” he said.

“Everyone’s entitled to miss one and Bohan scored quite a few for us last year, but these things happen.

“You see teams like Man City rotate their penalty takers a lot, so we’ll have a chat with the players about it and take it from there.”