Dan Beddow the head boy as Market Drayton Town leave it late

“The winner might have come in extra-time but there could be no question that we were worth the three points,” he said.

“I thought we played some of our best football of the season, particularly in the first half.

“Credit to them, Chasetown always seem to bring out the best in us and this was another memorable performance against them.

“If you want to be critical, you could say we should have had it wrapped up at half-time. We’d really stretched them.

“But I’m far happier acknowledging and praising, if you like, the character and conviction we demonstrated keeping at them to get the job done.”

It was actually three minutes into extra-time when Beddows, still driving forward for the decider, rose to head Ryan McLean’s excellent cross past Scholars’ keeper Curtis Pond.

It capped a fitting finale for 155 fans who had already been treated to an action-packed Evo-Stik NPL West Greenfields clash by two sides showing an unashamed enthusiasm for going forward.

Only minutes before visiting supporters had seen Danny Cocks go down for a highly suspicious penalty that gave Chasetown a golden chance to grab victory.

The task of taking to spot kick fell to Will Whieldon, a former captain of Drayton Town before joining his home town club – and he blasted the ball high over the bar.

“It was justice done,” said Davies. “It was never a penalty, not in a million years. The lad simply, who came on as sub, went down in our penalty area.”

Ironically, a rather different dead ball kick by Whieldon had paved the way for a shock first goal by Chasetown in the last minute of the first half, Tom Hill rising high above the home defence to head past keeper Ash Rawlins.

This after Town had laid siege to the Chasetown goal, forcing Pound into a string of saves and, when he was beaten, a goal line clearance by full back Sam Tonks.

Chasetown fought back in the second half with Rawlins saving from George Carter and then Josh Bradburn blocking Dan Vann’s goalbound header from a corner.

But Drayton gradually regained the upper hand Beddows deservedly equalising with a climbing header from Glynn Coney’s great free kick and then setting the pace for a cracking closing 20 minutes.

**Drayton beat Chasetown 2-0 away on September 22 with Desean Martin scoring both goals.

n Drayton Town’s game on Saturday is away to Droylsden and they stage their last home fixture the following Easter Monday, against Colwyn Bay, kick off 3pm.