HARWICH and Parkeston fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Halstead Town, in their latest Thurlow Nunn League first division south encounter.

Shrimpers management duo Michael Wallace and Gary Kioussis deserve praise for immediately bringing in new players after the poor performance at Wivenhoe and certainly on this showing, more points will be won once the matches resume.

Harwich brought new signings into their starting line-up, with centre-half Dan Clark and left-back Michael Schofield featuring.

Both had influential performances and improved the worrying defensive shortfalls from the Wivenhoe match which Harwich had lost 4-0.

Charlie Pepperell also made his second appearance of the season in goal.

Eliminating the first 15 minutes when Harwich found themselves 2-0 down, the Shrimpers probably gave their best performance of the season when they recovered superbly to deservedly get a share of the points despite having Elwin Lartey being sent off midway through the second half and the game finishing 2-2.

Conditions were certainly not going to be conducive for flowing football with a strong wind and a very heavy playing service.

Harwich went behind after only seven minutes when a long ball over Nicky Palmer saw Charlie Pepperell race off his line but failed to get to the ball first and the Shrimpers were into arrears.

It got worse for Harwich ten minutes later when a long ball downfield from the home goalkeeper was headed on and left a Halstead forward clear to race through to shoot home.

Harwich got back into the game on the half-hour mark.

A great ball our wide to Jamie Beecham saw him cut in from the by line to pull the ball back to the advancing Adam Hampson who fired low into the net from ten yards out.

The remainder of the half saw play swing from end to end but the half-time whistle saw Halstead hanging on to a 2-1 lead.

Harwich almost equalised just after the break when an angled shot from close range was partially saved by the home keeper and with Charlie Miller racing in to score a home defender seemed to bring him down with the ball virtually on the goal line.

Harwich appeals fell on deaf ears such is their luck at the moment.

Worse was to come for Harwich when Elwin Lartey was shown a second yellow card after a late challenge and got sent off.

Halstead thought they had scored when Pepperell parried the ball into the net but fortunately for the Shrimpers the referee was in the right position to spot a push on the Harwich keeper.

Brad Westley had dropped back to help out his defence following the sending off and both him and Dan Clark did very well thwarting the continuous aerial attacks from Halstead.

Harwich equalised with seven minutes remaining through Brad Westley who found time and space to fire home from Ollie Law's corner.

Halstead sent a free-kick over the bar deep into stoppage-time, as Harwich claimed a deserved point.