An enthralling and hugely entertaining encounter saw City come from two goals behind to score a stoppage time winner and snatch all three points.

For the first forty minutes, City were frankly looking completely lost and bewildered as wave after wave of Thamesmead pressure had them treading in treacle and looking as if they were going to be overrun.

Eventually they sorted themselves out though and finally started to retain some possession and began to get back into the game as the visitors began just to fade a little. City nullified the Thamesmead two goal lead before the half-time break and then in a very intense and at times hectic second half and with the game on a knife-edge, they finally scored again to take the lead and leave their opponents with no time to respond.

Thamesmead dominated from the start and caught City looking cold. They swept forward at every opportunity, employed a high press and it was as much as the hosts could do to string a few passes together and all the early openings and opportunities fell the way of the visitors. In just the first minute, Ben Lockett benefitted from a bounce that deceived the City defence but his firm effort was piled straight at City keeper Tom Benham who stood strong and batted it away for a corner. That was cleared but it came back out to Zak Loveridge who saw his effort take a nick and go over the bar for a second corner. City just managed to smuggle that out down by the near post for a third from which Paul Lee saw his half-hit shot safely gathered by Benham – a blistering start from the visitors!

Already City were under immense pressure barely able to play the ball out of their own half and from a Lockett free-kick, Lee guided his unchallenged and clear header wide of the City post when he really should have done better.

The next chance also fell to Thamesmead and they were a tad unlucky not to open the scoring. A big clearance from a Luke Illsley attacking long throw bounced up around the centre-circle and Loveridge volleyed it first-time towards the City goal catching Benham too far up-field. It flew well over his head before coming down right in front of goal but fortunately for City it then bounced up again off the surface and went high over the bar!.

Still only eleven minutes in and City were wondering what had hit them and they were soon indebted to Benham with a brilliant save to deny Lockett. Max Juniper had carved his way though the City ranks, laid the ball off sideways to Lockett who looked certain to score but for Benham’s superb sliding, spreading, one-handed save to slap the ball away for yet another Thamesmead corner.

It was from this though, that the visitors took a deserved lead. The ball was swung in creating more alarm in the City box as two more efforts were both blocked – one by the keeper again and the second by a defender, but the loose ball was still prodded across the goal area before finding Juniper a yard out and he tapped home for an easy goal and 0-1 – City had hardly had a kick, were looking completely out of sorts and were now unsurprisingly behind!

Dayo Santana then broke forward and twisted and turned his way on a mazey run right through City’s heart and into the box before seeing his shot hit a defender and go out for – yes you’ve guessed it, another corner! Fortunately, Benham rose to pluck this one safely out of the air!

Thamesmead should have doubled their lead on eighteen when a Lockett free-kick was sent in and Lee just drifted in and planted an unchallenged header wide of the City goal – twice he’s now had a free header and twice he’s missed the target!

City just couldn’t get going and even when they did manage some pressure on the Thamesmead half and won a corner, all it did was cost them another goal. The ball was far too easily cleared and Santana galloped off down the right wing with it. He rode past and skipped through some City challenges before arriving in the box and from a slightly tightish angle lashed the ball home in off the woodwork for 2-0 – nothing more than the visitors deserved and City were looking like they were going to be overrun!

City had to do something and made a change sending on Joe Nelder to bolster the defence. Thamesmead eventually just started to slow down and one or two passes started to go astray and City began to get a bit of the ball and some possession going. Once that switch had been flicked, they started to look more like of late and following a quick one-touch multi-pass and multi-player move, Alfie Giles dug out and squeezed a low ball across the face of goal where Harry Sikirwayi charged in and side-footed home from close range for 1-2.

That seemed to knock the stuffing out of the hitherto dominant visitors and within four minutes it was 2-2. Mo Cham broke down the right but his dangerous looking cross was cleared before Nelder’s long throw was pawed away by visiting keeper Justin Lee as City started to at last build some momentum. Another attack down City’s right eventually fell the way of Monty Saunders and he worked the ball into the edge of the box where Cham was on hand to shuffle himself a piece of space before hammering home a low shot through several bodies for the equaliser and a score that had seemed so very highly unlikely just minutes earlier!

That remained the score until half-time and at one point, I doubt you would even have got odds on the game being level at the break and from somewhere, City had been given a life and a chance to come back out with a reset and a fresh start – almost back to square one.

They made another change at the break as Sam Lawford entered the fray and the second-half was far more even, certainly more intense and nervy as the two sides basically went toe-to-toe.

An early City corner was well taken by keeper Lee while at the other end, Santana’s low shot was well defended by Nelder’s excellent sliding blocking tackle. Benham made a couple more saves, firstly denying Mark Adolo’s long range effort and then reacting smartly to gather another shot that had taken a big deflection up into the air. Tom Borders then turned but struck his twenty-yard effort high over the City bar before the hosts responded with Lawford breaking down the left only to see Lee make a smart one-handed save down at his near post.

Loveridge then went wide for Thamesmead, while City saw Cham’s shot well defended and then, after a nice move involving Saunders and Brad Walledge, Cham tried to curl an effort just inside the far post but Lee got across quickly to make a low save.

The game was going from end to end as both sides looked to get the next, possibly match winning goal. Santana almost did so but after his initial shot was well saved by Benham down low, the player then scooped the loose ball past the keeper and back towards the goal but somehow Illsley brilliantly hooked it away from the goal-line whilst down on the floor – exactly the type of defending the term ‘last-ditch’ was invented for!

In fact, City sprung forward from Illsley’s clearance and an attack at great pace ended with Walledge firing narrowly over the Thamesmead bar. City went closer still moments later when a Saunders corner from the right was perfectly met by Cham’s header but somehow the keeper acrobatically pawed it away from goal at point blank range – a cracking save.

The intensity was building, both sides were going for the win and you daren’t look away. The next chance fell to Santana for the visitors as he burst through on the City goal, but with Benham closing him down and at least half a dozen defenders in hot pursuit he stabbed the ball wide of the City goal.

Time was fast running out and City made further changes and quickly had three hurried half-efforts all off target and then, at the other end, had to scramble the ball away from inside their own box as Thamesmead continued to threaten. Jack Highwood then tried his luck from distance, but the ball just sped on straight and wide of the City goal before substitute Brad Jeffrey powered in a fierce shot that Lee did well to block deflecting it high up in the air before it came back down and was successfully, if nervously, defended back over their own bar by the visitors.

In an increasingly hectic and frenetic ending and well into stoppage time now, City just looked the more likely and another Saunders corner caused panic in the box as both Cham and Lawford saw chances blocked before Thamesmead somehow desperately scrambled the ball away to safety.

Lee then saved comfortably from Saunders before on ninety-three minutes City struck a winner! Rob Lawrence had only just come on but played a lovely little ball through to Cham whose fierce low shot was blocked by Lee, but Giles reacted quickest to the loose ball and rifled it home from close range for 3-2 and celebration and desolation everywhere in equal measures!!

The game ended soon after with Lawrence setting Jeffrey up for a curling effort wide from the edge of the box which turned out to be the final move of the game and brought City a fantastic win that keeps them just a place outside the play-offs.

While the first forty minutes were not great to say the least, and totally contrary to how they’ve been playing of late, you can’t help but admire the way City dug themselves out of some considerable mire, turned the game around and pulled off a stunning comeback victory!

Final score: Canterbury City 3 SC Thamesmead 2

City: Tom Benham, Will Currie, (Joe Nelder [Rob Lawrence]), Louie Procopi, Luke Illsley, Jake McCarthy (Leo Dodds), Alfie Giles, Harry Sikirwayi, Brad Walledge (Bradley Jeffrey), Mo Cham, Kian Scott (Sam Lawford), Monty Saunders.