A cracking second half equaliser from substitute Connor Hughes rescued a point for Daisy Hill in a 1-1 draw with Bacup Borough at New Sirs on Saturday.

After Daisy fell behind to a disputed penalty on the hour, Hughes struck a delightful free kick from 25 yards three minutes later, and although Daisy pushed forward in search of a winner, in the end they had to settle for a point.

It was former Daisy skipper Michael Gervin who fired home the disputed penalty to give the visitors the lead but the home side hit back to end a run of five successive home defeats.

Manager Leighton Mills was full of praise as his side managed to end the unwanted run.

“In the first half I thought we looked a little bit nervy to be honest, we have lost three on the bounce so that seemed to be on everyone’s mind”, he said.

“But in the second half we said right, it’s time to go and lay a marker on the game now and that’s what we did.

“We didn’t really need a keeper apart from having to play out, he didn’t have anything to do.

“I thought it was a really soft penalty for Bacup, but we have been talking for the past few weeks about a reaction when we went a goal down, and we reacted well and

scored soon afterwards to get it back to 1-1.

“From then on, there was only one team that was going to win the game and that was us. Compared to previous weeks that was a massive improvement.

“Bacup hadn’t conceded a goal in three games, and that was a blow because we were on top at the time, and we had to pick ourselves up and get into the game again.

“It would have been so easy to melt again, with the way the last three weeks have gone.

“But we didn’t, and we had lads throwing their bodies on the line in the last 30 seconds, and that was what we needed. So real credit must go to all the lads.

“We asked for certain things, worked on certain things in the week, and we had a squad meeting during to iron out what we needed to do, and do better.

“We were the better footballing side and now that we have stopped the rot, we have a platform to build on.”

The game ended on a disappointing note, when deep into stoppage time Bruno Severino was red carded for a second bookable offence.

Daisy Hill are back in action on Tuesday tonight when they make the short trip to Atherton LR for a first round tie in the Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy.

And the pair meet again on Friday, this time at New Sirs, in the FA Vase second qualifying round.