HAWKESBURY City conceded a goal in the final five minutes of the game to allow Hills Brumbies to recover from a 2-1 deficit to draw 2-2.
The Hills are atop the Football NSW NPL 3 and Hawkesbury were buoyed by their effort, despite giving up a chance to beat the top team.
Hawkesbury coach Dean Bertenshaw lamented City giving up the final goal, which came from a penalty shot from 30-metres out.
Moments before, Dane Smith, who had only just come onto the field, was red carded for foul language.
It was the fourth red card of the season for City, and Bertenshaw conceded penalties had hurt the team during its 2016 campaign.
“Most of our goals against us do come from free kicks and penalties which is something we need to work on I guess,” he said.
Both goals scored by Hills came through penalties on the weekend.
However, Bertenshaw said the silver lining was that with players unavailable because of suspension or injury, young players received plenty of time on the field.
“All that time with the young guys playing off has paid off because they got a lot of experience in the first few weeks,” he said.
“Rod Cormack had a very good game. He has stepped up from the under-20s and he has spent plenty of time on the ground in the first few weeks.”
Cormack set up both of City’s goals with crossing kicks and Ben gray and Jonathan McCrea took advantage of them.
Bertenshaw said he was confident the last placed Hawks would climb the table over the remaining 13 games of the season.
He said if the team could win 10 games, it should qualify for the finals.
“We have to make our run from sometime so we might as well start now,” he said.
This week, the team will host fourth placed Stanmore, which Bertenshaw said featured a number of very experienced players.
Despite the fact the first grade team is dwelling in the cellar, the under-20s, 18s, 16s and 15s are all having stellar seasons.
Bertenshaw said the young grades playing well was a good sign for the future of the club.
“The club is pretty heavily focused on its youth development and attracting good young players and that is starting to pay off,” he said.
“Hopefully we will see a lot of them come up to first grade in the next few years.”
Kick off on Saturday is at 5pm at Bensons Lane.