Whitchurch United 2 Gosport Borough 2 UNITED'S league survival hopes flickered once more when they battled from 2-0 down to earn a point against second-placed Gosport on Saturday.

Missing Paul Baker (flu), Gary Stockwell (injury) and George Pitts (wedding), Safeline-sponsored United knew they would have to battle hard. Bradley Ambrose put in a superb cross but neither striker could turn it in.

The best chance fell to Scammell on 19 minutes, but he blasted over when through on goal, leaving United to retaliate; but Steve Caswell again failed to hit the target after a jinking run.

An underhit back-pass from Steve Morris let in Graham Lindsey to score the opener, and within a minute it was 2-0, as Adam Camfield's free-kick was deflected into the net. Rickey Attridge missed a good chance at the start of the second half before Morris made amends for his earlier mistake with a goal-saving tackle on Lindsey.

United were given a lifeline on 57 minutes with a penalty for a push on Morris, leaving James Scrivens to tuck the spot-kick into the corner of the net.

Dave Smalley made two superb saves to keep United in the game, and just as it looked as if all their efforts were in vain, Scrivens charged down the left, beat the full-back and pulled a great cross across the face of goal.

It was met by Gregor Restell at the far post, who fired into the roof of the net to the jubilation of the home side.

Whitchurch manager Derek Smalley was delighted with his team's performance on Saturday.

He told the Advertiser: "Even though we were 2-0 down I was upbeat at half-time, and I just said we should go out there and keep playing, as they'd scored a couple of lucky goals. "Dave pulled off some tremendous saves, and Rickey worked incredibly hard, and it was a great team performance.

"We deserved it because we played well throughout the game, and we applied ourselves.

"It was really pleasing to have Gary Shaugnessy back after his broken nose. I told him he was in at the deep end, and he was a great midfield general.

"Every game's a cup final for us at the moment, and it's good that we've come back from 2-0 down as it shows us we can do it. There are 10 games left, and if we play as well as this in the games we've got left, we can do it."

Whitchurch face Moneyfields at Longmeadow on Saturday before entertaining Lymington & New Milton on Tuesday. Moneyfields won't have much to play for, while Lymington are in crisis after their manager quit two weeks ago.

Smalley said: "We might just catch them at the right time."