MANAGER Steve Riley was again lost in admiration for his young AFC Totton troops after tonight’s 1-1 draw at Biggleswade Town.

Time may be running out for the Stags in their quest to escape relegation from the Calor Southern Premier Division, but just one defeat in their last five games is testament to how far they have come.

Totton took the lead on 12 minutes when Chris Onoufriou, starting in place of Liam Gilbert, won midfield possession.

He played it out to Harrison Gilkes who, in turn, passed for the overlapping Liam Hibberd to whip in a cross for 17-year-old Zac Mouland to smash home.

Biggleswade levelled on 37 minutes with a bullet header by Brett Donnelly from Nat Peacock’s cross.

“Biggleswade are good side who get the ball forward early. They’re good at set-pieces with a lot of height,” said Riley.

“We needed big hearts and endeavour to match them and we had that tonight.

“It was quite an open game and the effort of our boys was fantastic. I can’t compliment them enough.”

The down side was losing Luke Roberts to a knee injury. “We took him off as a precaution and iced it. We’ll see how it is for the weekend,” said Riley.