Wycombe Wanderers 1, Northampton Town 1.

AARON Holloway rescued a point for Wanderers at the death as he scored his first goal for the club deep into stoppage time.

The substitute levelled things up five minutes into injury time just when it looked as though Wanderers were about to see their seven match unbeaten run come to an end in a surreal game.

Referee Pat Miller took centre stage, booking a succession of players for very little and showing Cobblers full back Gregor Robertson a very harsh red card late on.

Holloway’s goal proved too much for Northampton to take as both sets of players clashed in a melee immediately after the equalising goal.

In truth the goal was more than a touch unfortunate on the visitors, who had looked set to claim all three points from a game of few chances courtesy of Ryan Cresswell’s powerful first half header.

League Two’s match of the day between two of the high fliers failed to live up to the billing as two sides who have begun the campaign well largely cancelled themselves out, particularly in a first half that lacked the expected quality.

Some curious refereeing decisions will live longer in the memory than the football that was played, with Wanderers skipper Paul Hayes having an equalising goal ruled out for offside as well as Robertson being sent off in farcical circumstances near the end.

Wanderers peppered the visitors’ penalty area with a succession of crosses and corners early on without reward, as Aaron Pierre turned and shot wide at a set piece and a gloriously improvised backheeled cross from Paris Cowan-Hall was hacked to safety with Matt McClure poised to shoot.

A Joe Jacobson delivery was just about cleared by skipper Lee Collins as he managed to leap even higher than the spring-heeled Cowan-Hall before former Wanderers loan keeper Jordan Archer easily fielded a header from Peter Murphy, although the midfielder had already been flagged offside.

At the other end Matt Ingram was rarely called into action but he impressed as he claimed a header from Kaid Mohamed that threatened to loop over him and leave Lawson D’Ath with a simple finish at the far post.

D’Ath miscued badly however when presented with another opportunity to open the scoring as Chris Hackett wriggled free on the right before standing a cross up to the far post, which D’Ath sent over the top from six yards as he dived to reach the ball.

Team mate Cresswell showed him how it should be done minutes later as he stole in ahead of his marker to meet Joel Byrom’s free kick to send an emphatic header crashing into the net to give the Cobblers the lead.

From there on nothing happened for the rest of the half as both sides cancelled each other out, but within minutes of the restart Wanderers almost levelled. Cowan-Hall led the charge out from the back, McClure and Hayes combined to swing the ball out to Sam Wood and his fizzing cross was cleared in the nick of time by a brilliant sliding challenge from Collins just as Cowan-Hall – who had run most of the length of the field – looked odds-on to score.

Balls into the box were still very much the order of the day from Blues as Alfie Mawson headed a deep free kick from Sido Jombati high over the bar, with Pierre being unable to move towards the ball after being held back far too eagerly by his marker.

Hayes – unable to have his usual influence on proceedings after being well marshalled throughout by the visiting defence – glanced a header off target from yet another Jacobson delivery before Cowan-Hall skipped past a pair of defenders before sending a mishit shot drifting over the crossbar.

Northampton brought top scorer Marc Richards off the bench and his header drew an outstanding reflex stop from Ingram as the keeper stopped it with his foot, not knowing that the striker was offside.

A linesman’s flag then came to the visitors’ rescue as Wanderers had what they thought was an equalising goal chalked off. Murphy powered a header goalwards from a corner that Archer did well to parry and Hayes reacted quickest to bury the rebound, only to look on in despair as the flag went up.

Tellingly it was the first save Archer had had to make in the game and Murphy summed up their profligacy in front of goal as his header dropped wide of the far post.

A moment of farce then gave Blues something of an advantage as Robertson was shown his second yellow card of the afternoon for timewasting, but the full back had been waiting for John-Joe O’Toole to be brought on as a substitute, with the fourth official standing by with the electronic board.

It came so late in the game it looked like being inconsequential until right at the death as Wood’s right footed effort was clawed around the post by a stretching Archer.

Then Holloway rescued a point from the corner that followed, as he soared above the defence to crash home a header with the final touch of an extraordinary afternoon.

Wanderers: Ingram, Jombati, Pierre, Mawson, Jacobson, Cowan-Hall, Scowen, Murphy, Wood, McClure (sub Holloway), Hayes. Substitutes not used: Richardson, Lewis, Bloomfield, Walker, Kretzschmar, Craig.

Attendance: 3,822 (801 from Northampton)