By Martin Voller

BRENTWOOD Town and Redhill will meet again tonight after their FA Trophy preliminary round tie at The Arena ended in a 1-1 draw on Saturday.

Yeshaya Lomotey gave the hosts an early lead but Chris O’Flaherty equalised for the Lobsters midway through the second half.

Brentwood were reduced to ten men on 66 minutes when joint-manager Danny Dafter was shown a red card, but Redhill were unable to exploit the numerical advantage.

Joint-bosses Dafter and Adam Flanagan gave on-loan striker Owen Kabodi his debut as one of four changes to the team that lost to Ware on Tuesday.

Shad Ngandu, Jason Dobbs and Lomotey also came into the side and the latter gave the Blues an eighth minute lead.

Redhill failed to deal with Sam Bantick’s inswinging corner and the 18-year-old reacted quickest to poke the ball home from a couple of yards.

The next real chance fell to the visitors in the 26th minute. Tyrone Pink delivered an excellent cross towards the back post and Javlon Campbell headed low but was unable to beat Blues’ keeper Ollie Bowles.

Brentwood remained in front going into the second half and they appealed for a penalty in the 48th minute after Jack Hope brought down Kabodi in the box but nothing was given.

The Blues continued to look for a second and a neat pass from Lomotey released Bantick who charged into the box, but the winger dragged his low shot wide of Michael Hunter’s goal.

In the 65th minute Redhill drew level in extraordinary fashion as O’Flaherty’s corner-kick beat everyone and curled directly into the Brentwood net.

And it got worse for the hosts as virtually straight from the restart they went down to ten men after Dafter was shown a second yellow card following a late challenge on Pink.

The Surrey-based side looked to make the most of the man advantage as they broke on the counter attack.

Good work by Pink and Fiachra McArdle put Campbell through on goal but Bowles denied the striker with an acrobatic save.

Mike Maher’s side continued to attack but thanks in part to an excellent last-ditch block from skipper Martyn Stokes the score remained level as referee Philip Rowley blew the final whistle.

“There are going to be some tired individuals on Tuesday,” said joint-boss Flanagan, “We will have to ask the same players who have dug in for a large portion of that second half with ten men to work hard again so it will be a tough task.”

He added: “We’ve got so many injuries at the moment, it would have been nice to have the week off to and then go into the Soham game next Saturday with a full-strength squad.”

The winner of Tuesday’s replay at Kiln Brow will face Biggleswade Town at home in the first qualifying round.

Brentwood: Bowles, Mbulu, Baucutt, Stokes (C), O’Rawe, Ngandu, Dobbs (Bankole 83’), Dafter, Kabodi (Stanley 73’), Lomotey, Bantick.

Unused subs: Joslin, Pellin.