DOWNTON came back from a goal down and saved a penalty to beat visiting Folland Sports 2-1 last Saturday, in their final home game of their Wessex League Division One campaign.

The Robins started the brighter of the two sides. Two good chances fell to Paul Gulliver and Shaun Prentice within the first five minutes but the Follands shot stopper stood strong.

Some neat play by Tyler Rutten from a well worked corner saw Ben Smith through with the only the goalkeeper to beat but saw his shot skim the crossbar.

Downton's on loan stopper Tom Roberts was much a spectator for most of the first half until a cheap free-kick was given away just outside the box and from this Folland scored.

The Robins responded well with Declan McGregor and Prentice, looking good upfront.

Downton were well on top of the game with plenty of possession but just could not find the net.

The second half was much the same. Charlie Cooper started brightly for Downton with some excellent attacking play and going close on several occasions.

Tyler Rutten and Matt Steer worked tirelessly in the centre of the park and Steer's link up play was a joy to watch as the Robins searched for the equaliser.

On 80 minutes, it arrived as McGregor forced a corner which Daniel Telfor delivered to meet the on coming Irish hitman McGregor to head home to level the score.

From here on in it seemed there would be only one winner with Downton peppering the away side with shots coming in from all angles.

Downton again forced another corner with Telfor again delivering to perfection but this time was met by Smith whose bullet header seemed to be well over the line, but was well cleared into the path of Charlie Cooper who made no mistake in crashing his first time volley into the roof of the net.

Folland were not done yet as a rare attack saw Smith bring down their striker for a last minute penalty.

Folland's celebrated like they had already scored but Tom Roberts had different ideas and his diving save made sure the Robins won all three points in which was a highly entertaining game at Wick Lane.

Manager Ben Smith said: "Today was again another great performance, some of our players must go home thinking how did not we win that by six or seven.

"We showed real strength going forward and Tyler Rutten was huge for us today and he got us ticking from the off so im really pleased for him.

"Hopefully we can start the building process for next season and build around some of the fantastic players we have here."

They are next in action this evening at Tadley Calleva and on Saturday they are at title chasing Christchurch.