It was only a draw but just perhaps there are better times ahead for Steve McKimm’s side as he saw his side having stared into the abyss at 2-0 down with not much more than 15 minutes to go fight back with two goals and pressing for a winner.

It was the way the players quite literally picked themselves up off the floor that will have pleased the supporters as they applauded the team off at the final whistle.

The first half saw the Angels having a little more of the ball but Brightlingsea always looking dangerous on the break.

The visitors could have opened their account in the first minute when a dangerous ball from the left was blocked by a Tonbridge defender. At the other end Joe Turner should have done better when through but shot tamely at R’s stopper James Bradbrook.

Brightlingsea’s Aaron Condon created a couple of decent chances one of which was superbly saved by Angels no 1 Jonny Henly.

The Essex side were not to be denied for much longer as in the 25th minute they took the lead through Harvey Hood put through by a pass from the left.

Angels responded but the closest they came was in the 35th minute when Tom Beere’s cross was almost converted by D’Sean Theobalds but Bradbrook responded with a sound block.

Immediately after the restart Brightlingsea doubled their advantage when Billy Hunt was allowed to waltz through the home defence to strike past Henly and at that stage it looked like an away win was on the cards.

Angels substitutions saw Tom Murphy make way for Alex Read while Adem Ramadan replaced Tom Beere and suddenly the Angels were flying.

The home side fought back with goals from Tom Parkinson in the 76th minute and substitute Alex Read on 83 minutes. The home side pressed hard for the winner in the closing stages but in the end a draw was probably the right result.

Asked about the two goals conceded McKimm said: “Just now I’m not too interested in them. Of course I’ll have a look at them later and analyse what went wrong, but I would rather concentrate on the two goals we scored and the way the team responded at the end to try and win the game. Hopefully we’ve got momentum now to give us a positive training session on Tuesday and can take that into Saturday’s game against Kingstonian.”