Rocks 3 Merstham 3

It felt like a defeat after they had come back from the dead to lead - but the lesson has to be that if you have a hatful of chances to kill off a game, you are inviting trouble if you don't take one or two.

It keeps the Rocks' unbeaten home run going but will leave them with mixed feelings ahead of the FA Cup visit to Eastleigh. The point keeps the Rocks fourth in the table.

James Crane, Richard Hudson and Luke Nightingale were all back in the starting XI as the management used their squad's strength to give John Marzetti, Michael Birmingham, Phil Turner and Dean Maynard a night on the bench. Nightingale was captain.

The Rocks started the night in fourth place and with a perfect home record with 13 goals and five wins in their first five home matches.

But that record looked under threat within a minute as a quick move forward saw a pass threaded through to Dale Marvell and he drew Craig Stoner before sidefooting past him to stun the home crowd.

It rocked the home team for a while '“ they looked half-asleep and struggled to get the ball out of their own half.

The first threat from the Rocks saw James Fraser skip past two challenges and curl a shot goalwards but it was deflected to safety.

Gradually the Rocks were finding their rhythm and Richard Hudson weaved past two men as he cut inside from the right and hit a shot that a defender deflected for a corner.

At the other end Dan Harding was in on Stoner but the keeper held his low shot well.

After ten minutes Jason Prior beat Merstham keeper Ian Chatfield to the ball when a clearance cannoned back off an attacker. The keeper blocked Prior's shot but was injured when the two came together.

It was frantic stuff, with Merstham showing plenty of energy going forward but neither side finding much in the way of quality in the final third.

A difficult job for the Rocks got harder when Harding made it 2-0 on 20 minutes. The striker was played in on the left side of the area, rounded Stoner and placed a shot which James Crane couldn't quite keep out.

Hudson tried to get the Rocks straight back into it with a curling free-kick from 25 yards but it was straight into Chatfield's arms. He had a similar dead-ball opportunity two minutes later but again it was an easy save.

Merstham's tails were up and David Smith fizzed a grasscutter of a shot a couple of yards wide of Stoner's left-hand post.

One Rocks attack ended with first Ben Johnson and then Prior hitting fierce shots goalwards, but one was blocked and the other landed just the wrong side of the post with Chatfield looking like he had it covered.

Nightingale held the ball up well for Hudson and his low ball in looked perfect for Prior, but a defender got a foot it to deny the Rocks' leading scorer.

Another Hudson free-kick caused chaos in the Merstham six-yard box on 35 minutes. Three times it was headed up in the air with the keeper unable to gather but eventually it bounced up and over for a goal kick.

Prior hauled the Rocks back into it after 36 minutes. A throw-in on the left found Fraser, who turned his marker inside out by the byline before looking up and floating over a lovely cross which was an open invite for Prior to head in at the far post.

There might have been a quick equaliser as Crane chipped a ball into Nightingale, whose flicked header was too far in front of Prior running in at the far post.

Nightingale was hungry for a goal and he had another chance four minutes before the break when he met Crane's cross after the defender's surging run from his own half, but he directed his header wide.

The Rocks claimed a penalty in the 45th minute when Dan Royce tumbled under a challenge in the box but the ref wasn't in agreement.

Then another cross looked to have Prior's name on it at the back post but he couldn't see off the attentions of a defender.

HT 1-2

The crowd of 262 was 104 down on Saturday's attendance, but that perhaps wasn't surprising for a midweek night when there was football on TV.

Marzetti replaced Matt Whitehead for the start of the second half, with Crane switching full-back positions and the youngster slotting in at right-back.

The first chance of the half fell to Royce within two minutes of the restart, but the midfielder shot wide with no defender near him after a beautiful pass from Fraser.

Tht didn't matter two minutes later, though, as Nightingale rifled home the equaliser from 20 yards after a neat move down the Rocks left. It was his second goal in successive games, showing his battle for fitness after summer knee surgery has been well and truly won.

The comeback bore a striking resemblance to the one that had seen the Rocks pull back from 2-0 down in the FA Cup against Hastings ten days earlier. On that occasion they went on to win '“ and here they almost made it 3-2 when a corner led first to strong shouts for a penalty for handball and then a scramble which ended with Chatfield saving down low at the second attempt.

Michael Birmingham replaced Royce on 55 minutes and didn't take long to make an impression, floating a shot over the bar from 25 yards after a promising build-up.

Prior thought he'd given the Rocks the lead on 57 minutes when he looked like he had risen higher than Chatfield to head in Fraser's high hanging cross, but the referee angered the home players and fans by ruling he had fouled the No1.

The Rocks were absolutely battering Merstham and it was no surprise when they took the lead a minute later. This time there was an element of luck about it as Hudson's left-foot shot from just inside the area was deflected wide of Chatfield and rolled in off the post.

Fraser almost set up another for Prior when he lofted a ball into the box after a corner had been cleared, but the striker's header was held at the second time of asking by the busy Chatfield.

Marzetti got away down the right when Fraser robbed an opponent in the centre circle and his teasing cross almost fell for Nightingale, and when the loose ball ran to Birmingham, a defender got in the way of his piledriver.

Chatfield kept Merstham in the game on 70 minutes with a stupendous diving save to keep out Fraser's curling effort which was bound for the top corner. He palmed it to Crane and somehow got down to block the defender's close-range shot.

It was shooting practice now as Nighitngale laid a ball off to Prior but his delicate curled effort from way out was an easy one for Chatfield.

On a rare foray forward for the visitors, Jordan Cheadle dragged a low left-footed drive well wide of Stoner's target.

A Merstham change saw Ben King replace opening scorer Marvell on 73 minutes.

Prior had another chance to make the points safe with 14 minutes left when Fraser's mazy run ended with the ball running to him unmarked ten yards out, but somehow he shot high and wide with no man pressurising him.

Then Prior '“ who else? '“ saw another far-post hit the back of a defender's head to go out for a corner.

A second substitution for Merstham came on 80 minutes, the other scorer Harding coming off for Barney Saunders.

No-one in a Rocks shirt was frightened to shoot and next to try was Marzetti, whose left-foot volley was a couple of yards wide after he had made space for himself down the inside right channel.

Seven minutes from the end, the hard-working Prior made way for Dean Maynard, who must have been looking on enviously throughout the half as chance after chance fell the way of the Rocks forwards.

It had been such a dominant second half from Bognor but as the game entered its final five minutes they began to look nervy and were unable to keep possession to work down the clock.

With a minute left, a long ball over the top looked like putting Smith in with only Stoner to beat but he allowed the chance to run away from him.

The Rocks almost made him pay when Maynard broke down the right and set up Hudson, but his volley was wildly off-target.

A long throw had the home fans biting their nails. It was cleared as far as Adam Moriarty, whose long-range shot won a corner. When it came in only Axten's desperate block kept out Cheadle's volley.

There were two more scrambles for the Rocks to deal with and there was relief when the second was interrupted by the referee's whistle for a home free-kick.

Then Hudson and Maynard combined to set up Nightingale but he was just beaten to the chance in the six-yard box by a defender.

But the Rocks' hearts were broken in the final seconds of the three minutres of stoppage time when Moriarty was allowed to run at the defence and unleash a shot which Stoner couldn't hold. Sub King was on hand to lash the loose ball into the net.

There was no time for either side to go for an unlikely winner.

Rocks: Stoner 7, Crane 6, Whitehead 6, Fraser 8, Axten 7, Bond 7, Hudson 8, Royce 7, Prior 8, Nightingale 9, Johnson 8. Subs: Marzetti 8, Birmingham 7, Turner, Maynard, Wood.

Merstham: Chatfield, Murphy, Cheadle, Goggin, Sheridan, Corbett, Smith,Moriarty, Reid, Harding, Marvell. Subs: King, Saunders, Gellett, Duke.

Ref: S Finch (Southampton)

Report by STEVE BONE