HIGHGATE maintained their unbeaten start to the season on Tuesday night after holding fellow Midland League Premier Division new boys Sporting Khalsa to a 1-1 draw.
A scrappy home draw with Sporting Khalsa earned Gate a point but saw them slip down to second place behind new leaders Stourport Swifts who beat Westfield 4-2 on the same evening.
It proved to be a physical contest with both sides receiving a flurry of yellow cards but it was the hosts who edged the first half.
Lei Brown was unlucky to see a header from Dale Taylor’s free kick come back off the face of the cross bar but the Gate striker struck in 34th minute by hitting his volley high into the roof of the net after keeper James Pemberton had parried Connor Mooney’s powerfully struck drive into the centre forward’s path.
With the game continuing in its disjointed fashion after the break, chances were to prove few and far between.
But the visitors were to finish strongly and came close to pulling level in the 83rd minute when Tesfa Robinson rattled the woodwork from a close range header.
Gate looked to have run the clock down but with four minutes time added on poor defending was to lead to the conceding of a late penalty coolly converted by Bradley Lawley with what was to be the last kick of the game.
