There are now only a couple of weeks for Hawke’s Bay United to add to their modest win tally in the ISPS Handa Premiership after they fought out a dramatic 2-2 draw against Tasman United in Napier this afternoon.

With both sides long out of the play-off running after enduring frustrating campaigns, there was little riding on the outcome today in a wider sense.

Aside from each team looking to finish the season strongly, the most notable aspect of the encounter was perhaps the quest of Hawke’s Bay striker Sam Mason-Smith to claim the golden boot as the competition’s top scorer.

He went into the weekend leading the charts but the events of yesterday put his chances seriously under threat as the Eastern Suburbs pair of Andre de Jong and Callum McCowatt both drew level with the big Englishman by notching a hat-trick and double respectively.

With Mason-Smith set to depart the Bay to play in Australia, this was his final opportunity to regain the outright lead and he did so with two second-half goals, firstly providing an equaliser by prodding home from close range after Gavin Hoy had headed a deep Paul Ifill cross back across goal.

That made it 1-1 after Tasman had earlier taken the lead just past the half hour in stunning fashion, the lightning quick Liam MacDevitt bursting down the left before curling a perfectly-placed effort past Hawke’s Bay goalkeeper Mackenzie Waite.

The pace of MacDevitt continued to be a threat for Tasman in the second half and yielded a chance for substitute Matt Tod-Smith which Waite palmed away.

Hawke’s Bay also knocked on the door a couple of times, creating good opportunities for French import Maxime Oliveri and veteran Paul Ifill but neither could take full advantage and it appeared there would be no further scoring as the clock ticked down.

But a thrilling finale then ensued, Mason-Smith believing he had struck a late winner with only a few minutes remaining but being denied that honour as Tasman captain Fox Slotemaker - who has played every minute for his side this season - pushed forward to smash home a dramatic equaliser.

"When you score that late in the game you think you’ll just shut up shop and get the job done but credit to Tasman to come back like that," Mason-Smith said.

"It was disappointing to be so close to three points like that. We’ve conceded soft goals all year and it’s been a problem we haven’t been able to fix."

Tasman danger man MacDevitt likewise admitted to a sense of frustration at not taking full reward.

"It was a good game and it probably could have gone either way," he said.

"I think we had the better first half but they had the better second half so I think both teams will think they could have got three points but a draw was probably the fairest result."

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