Two goals conceded in the 90th minute or later cost FK Radnik Roystjina two points at Granton Star on Sunday.
It had all started so well for the Roystjina side, Kiril Mateev turning home a corner in the opening minute to give the visitors the lead. Granton had a goal disallowed in the first half, but Radnik were well on top in this period and extended their advantage to 2-0 from another corner on 39 minutes, Borut Grubic the scorer on this occasion.
Two to the good at the break, Radnik just needed to see the game out. They managed this successfully for the first 44 minutes of the second half as Star didn't even have a shot.
However when the hosts did get their first sight of goal of the period, in the 90th minute, they took it. Inspired by this, and with Roystjina unaccountably panicking, Granton scored again with virtually the last kick of the game to leave Radnik boss Janik ruing the loss of two points. He said, "we so should have won that game. It was just unprofessional of the boys. And it's cost us top spot to boot. Very irritating."
Radnik progressed to Round 4 of the Master League Cup in jaw-dropping fashion as they survived a wild second leg at HouseCall FC to pick up an 8-6 aggregate victory.
Radnik were 4-2 up from the first leg in Roystjina, but were worried by the two away goals conceded. However, things looked OK for the visitors at half-time after they had been the better side in a pretty quiet first half that had passed by goallessly. Which just made what was coming next all the more extraordinary.
The second-leg deadlock was broken on 54 minutes by the hosts who, at 3-4 down but with two away goals, only needed one more to be ahead in the tie. However, Radnik responded to edge back two in front on aggregate in the 65th minute when Urby Soesoe buried a shot from distance, and then went ahead on the night when Avni Byzhuti struck on 76 minutes. That goal also put Roystjina three up on aggregate (6-3) and also wiped out HoseCall's away goal advantage.
The hosts hadn't given up though, and pulled one back just two minutes later. However, that just prompted Radnik to fly up the other end and make it 3-2 on the night through Denis Sforza. The visitors now had the away goal cushion which made for an effective four goal lead (7-4 on aggregate, but 7-7 would break for Radnik: HouseCall now needed to win 8-7 overall), so surely the match was done.
Not so. Either HouseCall couldn't do the maths, or they didn't care, as they kept tearing into their visitors. A fourth goal in six minutes made it 3-3 on the night on 82 minutes, before a fifth in eight put the hosts in front 4-3 on the night, but still behind 7-6 overall (and, remember, they needed to win rather than draw on aggregate now).
At this rate Radnik clearly needed at least one more strike for comfort. And Vikram Bisht provided it, ending a brief spell (3 minutes) when the game had gone unaccountably quiet by striking with 88 on referee Hans Grüber's watch. Grüber had clearly had enough of all this, as he then disallowed a fifth on the night for Radnik which had apparently come from Sforza in the 90th minute.
Radnik boss Janik remarked, "wow! But we are through. So also 'Phew!'"
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