A dramatic sweetly struck volley by Kieran Comiskey in injury time gave Prestwich a much deserved share of the points against promotion and title rivals Roach who remain 12 points behind but with 5 games in hand.
Prestwich started the game strongly enough dominating possession with their slick passing game but struggled to create real chances in behind the physically powerful Roach defence leaving play concentrated on the area between the half way line and the edge of the Roach’s box.
It was clear though that Roach were a different proposition to many of the sides in this league and that Prestwich had a real game on their hands as Roach got a foothold increasingly first to the ball on the floor and particularly in the air completely shifting the balance of play.
Having given warning Roach took the lead on 12 mins with what was a really poor goal for Prestwich to concede, a corner from the right was allowed to land some three yards out of goal, with keeper Mike Hudson rooted to the line and nobody really marking anyone Roach’s man was gifted time and space to bundle the ball over the line.
Roach were now in the ascendency and worryingly for Prestwich looked like they simply had more desire to win the game, winning just about every physical duel and Prestwich were hanging on desperate not to concede again, the situation made even more precarious by the loss of centre half Paul Taylor through injury.
Fortunately the loss of Taylor was balanced out by Roach losing their impressive centre forward also to injury and by the fact that Comiskey Taylors replacement would go on to have such a huge influence in the game with the goal and his overall performance.
Prestwich slowly clawed their way back into it restoring the balance and started to get chances to equalise, first Steve Murty went on a typical run twisting and feigning his way left to right across the box to get into a good shooting position but the shot was tame and easily held by the keeper.
Then Sean Haslam held up the ball well to square across goal to Mike Neary some two yards out with the empty goal at his mercy, Neary inexplicably missed the goal completely and skewed the ball back across goal and out of play.
Other chances came and went but as was to become the story of the game for Prestwich the final contact was always weak or miss hit in some way and Roach survived the half relatively easily.
Prestwich really cranked up the pressure after the restart in particular through the classy Martin Hill who started to make slaloming runs from the half way line deep into Roach box but if anything was guilty of being too unselfish often trying to set up a team mate when in a position to shoot himself.
Whilst the general flow was in the direction of the visitors box as they fought tooth and nail to protect their lead, Roach were very much still in the game as an attacking force and Hudson was called upon to tip a stinging shot over the bar and one felt a second goal for Roach would prove catastrophic as the minutes ticked by without a Prestwich goal.
Prestwich introduced Chris Adams and re-jigged several times as they became increasingly desperate to salvage something out of the game, Haslam was unlucky with a great turn and shot from the edge of the box, Prieto fired over and Pete Gallagher sent a ball in from the right that was just begging for any sort of connection as it fizzed across the goal but nobody quite reached it.
Murty and Hill constantly menaced the Roach defence with their speed and trickery but always seemed to get blocked at the last second.
Just as it looked like Roach had done enough to claim three valuable points and cause a huge shift in the balance of the title race Prestwich’s perseverance paid off. A straight ball up to the right hand edge of the Roach box was neatly flicked on by Haslam into the path of Comiskey who volleyed into back of the net from 12 yards triggering touchline celebrations.
Whilst there was a feeling another five minutes of time would have seen Prestwich go on and take all three points a draw was probably a fair result given Roaches powerful first half display, and the point shared took on even more significant as news filtered through of Rossendale’s defeat making for a very exciting climax to the season.
