NEIL Lennon made a surprise appearance at Alder House as a youthful Wanderers team played out an entertaining 1-1 draw at Atherton Colls.

In a week where he has been surrounded by heavy speculation linking him to the Leicester City job the Northern Irishman showed it was business as usual as he drove into the ground 10 minutes before kick-off, posed for pictures and signed autographs for fans.

The bumper 1,500 gate was buzzing as the Whites boss took his place alongside Iain Brunskill in the dugout, and also presented Colls boss Michael Clegg with a manager of the year award at half-time.

North West Counties Premier outfit Colls snatched a draw at the death when Wesley Bancroft scored in the 90th minute.

But Wanderers will feel they should have been out of sight - Enock Likoy-Elumba missing a penalty to put his team 2-0 up just a few moments earlier.

Jamie Thomas converted a penalty midway through the second half that looked likely to be a winner.

Colls had coped well against a strong Wanderers line-up in the first half and could have opened the scoring when Gareth Peet broke through, only for Harry Campbell to come quickly off his line to clear the danger.

Kaiyne Woolery was a constant menace for the Whites, who saw much of the ball, and had one chance parried away superbly by Danny Taberner. Conor Wilkinson, whose move to Barnsley has now collapsed, put in the rebound but the linesman flagged the striker offside.

Woolery had another chance later on in the half after his pace caught out Taberner but the youngster couldn’t get a shot away after beating the keeper.

The Colls keeper tipped a header from Tyrell Palmer on to the bar soon after the restart but the pace of the game slowed and looked to be petering out to a goalless draw until Harry Reilly was hauled down with nine minutes to go.

Thomas stepped up confidently to score from the spot but was off the field when the second penalty was given for a foul on Under-18s talent Likoy-Elumba. The same player stepped up and aimed for the same bottom right-hand corner, only to put his effort a yard wide of the post. Colls, to their credit, fought on and grabbed a share of the spoils in stoppage time when Bancroft finished well past Will Jaaskelainen – watched by his dad Jussi in the 90th minute.