Hawks Come Back To Beat Ten-Man Tigers

The Tigers came into the match in reasonable form, having not lost in five, while the hosts lost second place to Hampton & Richmond Borough last weekend after they had failed to beat Hemel Hempstead Town.

And they had to be patient on a tricky surface, despite the visitors going down to ten-men after only 14 minutes when skipper Sam Avery was sent-off after pushing Wes Fogden to the floor after assuming he`d dived for the initial offence.

But instead of working against the Tigers, it seemed to galvanise them and they held firm fairly comfortably until half-time.

And then just 7 minutes into the second half, the ten-men took the lead when home `keeper Ryan Young was left stranded when he had come out to clear the ball and Joe Parker took full advantage to lob the ball home from near the halfway line.

Gloucester held that lead until the 65th minute when the promotion-chasers grabbed an equaliser through top scorer Jason Prior (pictured), who netted at the far post after a low cross had found its way to him.

The Hawks poured forward after that looking for a second, which came on 77 minutes when a Brian Stock corner was neatly headed home by Theo Lewis.

Lee Bradbury`s side survived a late scare when Ethan Moore went down in the box from a Ryan Woodford challenge, but the referee waved play-on and the Hawks had three vital points.