CENTRAL defender Tom Strike’s stunning 25-yard shot two minutes into time added on rescued a deserved point for St Blazey in a hugely competitive Cornish derby at Mount Wise on Tuesday night.

The Green and Blacks were staring defeat in the face after Louis Price’s 89th minute free-kick surprisingly beat keeper Kyle Moore at his near post to give Newquay the lead for the first time.

But the visitors refused to accept a loss as they poured forward during injury-time and Strike, up from the back, latched onto a pass on the edge of the penalty area to fire the ball into the top corner via a deflection.

A draw was just about the right result although both teams could argue they should have collected three points rather than one.

St Blazey were the better side by some distance in the first half and their stand-out performer, Teigan Rosenquest, broke the deadlock on the half-hour after a sparkling midfield burst from Sam Clifton.

Before that, Dan Jennings, filling Blazey’s problematic number nine shirt, came close to scoring with a powerful header which flew inches wide, and only some excellent defending denied Clifton as he prepared to head in from inside the six-yard box.

Newquay were on the back foot for most of the half but were handed a generous lifeline when the referee gave them a dubious penalty in first half stoppage-time which top scorer Jack Bray-Evans converted.

The second half was a different story as the Peppermints, lifted by Rhys Simmonds coming alive along the left wing, looked the more likely to take the lead.

Simmonds created several half chances with mazy runs which left defenders in his wake, and from one of them, a great pass sent Price in but Strike made an excellent tackle.

Then came the late drama to send a holiday crowd of 472 – one person was heard asking what colour Newquay were in – home happy with their night’s entertainment.

Blazey boss Mark Carter said: “Another game where, unfortunately, we’ve dropped two points. For the first 35 minutes, I thought we were superb. We were on top, dominated possession, and looked sharp all over the pitch.

“But when we’re in control like that, we’ve got to capitalise and put the ball in the net – that’s the difference at this level.

“Then, just before half-time, the referee gave what I felt was an incredibly soft penalty. It gave Newquay a foothold in a game they didn’t deserve to be in at that point.

“Similar to the Saltash game, these big decisions just aren’t going our way right now. You can’t help but feel that if it was up the other end, we wouldn’t get it.”

He went on: “Credit to Newquay — they came out in the second half and were the better side. They pinned us back, and we had to defend well. I thought we did that. Jordan Bentley and Tom Strike were both solid and dealt with a lot of pressure.

“Their second goal came from a direct free-kick. Kyle knows he should do better there, but he’s been outstanding for us this season, so he doesn’t need me to tell him that.

“Importantly, Newquay couldn’t break us down from open play – that’s a positive we’ll take away.

“We got ourselves back into it with a well-deserved equaliser from Strikey. However, my main frustration from the second half is that we didn’t get into their penalty area enough.

“We worked the ball into promising positions but often ended up going backwards. That’s something we’ll be focusing on improving in training.

“Plenty to build on — we move forward.”

Newquay manager Shaun Middleton said: “We changed shape and went with a flat two upfront. Unfortunately it made us light in the middle and St Blazey were dominating the first 30 minutes.

“Once we changed it up I felt we controlled the game until the end and should have scored more goals, but fair play to Blazey although when you’re 2-1 in the 92nd minute, you would have though we should have finished off the game.

“Unfortunately we had a player come off for treatment and as he was waved back on they scored a deflected shot from the sort of position he would probably have been in.

“That seems to be the way it is at the minute, but we’ve got to crack on and go again.”

NEWQUAY: Ethan Elwell; Ollie Butterworth, Jamie Edlin, Harry Downing (capt), Tom Moxham; Jacob Grange (Dan Carne, 81), Lucas Potts, Ross Fallens, Rhys Simmonds; Jack Bray-Evans, Louis Price. Subs not used: Aaron Dilley, Owen Johnson, Harry Richards, Al Ahmed.

ST BLAZEY: Kyle Moore; Noah Maund, Tom Hensman (Harley Collier 90+1), Charlie Hambly, Tom Strike, Jordan Bentley, Rio Daly, Sam Clifton, Dan Jennings (Charlie Menear, 71), Tyler Elliott, Teigan Rosenquest (Callum McGhee 71). Subs not used: Brad Rowe, Mac Dewsnap (gk).

Men-of-the-match: Newquay – Jacob Grange; St Blazey – Tom Strike.