LUCK has gone for and against Romsey Town in an eventful week for the Sydenhams League One promotion chasers.

Saturday’s 2-1 win at New Milton was sealed by an 89th-minute Craig Bryant winner which, on another day, might not have been given.

But their hopes of building on that success were snuffed out on Tuesday when a floodlight failure at East Cowes Vics forced an early second-half abandonment with the score at 1-1.

Romsey had got off to an ideal start at New Milton with Liam Magee smashing in a 25-yarder off the underside of the bar with just a couple of minutes gone.

But Town, who handed a debut to new strike signing Jack Odam from Lymington Town, always knew that the New Forest side would not make life easy for them and so it proved when Steve Flynn levelled matters midway through the second half.

That goal rocked Romsey and, by manager Andy Samuels' own admission, they were "all over the place" defensively for a spell.

But the introduction of subs Brett Stanley and Andy Turner settled them down and Lady Luck played her part in the winner.

“Jordan (Westbrook, goalkeeper) took a free-kick and Craig and their keeper and central midfielder all challenged for it,” said Samuels.

“Their midfielder went down holding his face but the ref didn’t blow and Craig jumped up and smashed it in.

"The ref spoke to the linesman and, thankfully, awarded the goal, but I can understand why New Milton were aggrieved. I’d have been the same.

"If there's a head injury the officials are supposed to stop play.

"We got the luck of the green and were lucky to come away with three points."

At East Cowes on Tuesday, Town fell behind to a 15th-minute lob over Westbrook before missing free headers through Dan Fox and Kieran Hancock.

But just when it looked as if they would go in trailing at half-time, Brett Stanley netted a sublime free-kick described by Samuels as "the best I've seen."

"He's launched it over the keeper's head and it's gone in off the underside of the bar. The swerve and dip he got on it was unbelievable. Even their players were saying how good it was," said the boss.

"Brett's got a bit of swagger about him, which is great, and it's such a shame that he's scored an unbelievable goal and it won't count because the lights went out.

"He was peeved, but we were very understanding about the floodlight failure because it's happened to us."

Romsey, still well in the promotion hunt in sixth, are home to mid-table Downton on Saturday (3pm) and then host fifth-placed Laverstock & Ford on Tuesday (7.45pm).