Bathurst District Football: Abercrombie FC and Collegians FC play out 2-all draw in testing conditions

The result? An exhausting 2-all draw played in challenging, warm conditions.

In the hottest weather of the BDF season to date Collegians showed their fitness to claw back a two goal deficit in the last round before finals.

Both clubs had finals football to look forward to regardless on Sunday's result and they'll have a lot to take away from this game in preparation for the semi-finals.

Abercrombie will be thrilled with the way they played the opening 20 minutes of the game, in which they dominated every facet of the match and picked up two goals in the process.

AFC got on the board in just the seventh minute when Niall Fingleton was the recipient of a lovely, short through ball into the box. He then cut outside of the keeper to finish from a tight angle.

The advantage extended to two in the 17^th minute when Nick Ioannides latched onto a long overhead ball downfield and poked his shot into the right corner of the goal.

Abercrombie did suffer a brief scare inbetween those goals when Collegians were awarded an indirect free kick but the resulting shot was deflected over the bar.

Abercrombie's sharp passing abandoned them at times during the second half while Collegians continued to press the attack.

Collegians' first goal in the 62^nd minute was a stroke of fortune but Ben Muller showed why every coach will tell their strikers to pressure the opposing goalkeeper on a backpass.

When Muller got his body in the way of the keeper's clearance the ball thudded off him and straight into the back of the Abercrombie net.

Collegians then locked the game up at two apiece when Anthony Dunn launched a long range effort into the top left corner with just over 10 minutes to play.

Collegians' captain Dylan Harvey said it was satisfying to make the comeback with several key players out of the team.

"Everyone really got into it and it was a great effort. I think they really wanted it in those 50-50 moments," he said.

"We were missing four good players today so we were pretty depleted. It was such a great effort, especially in the heat today."

As they've done at other points this season, Gold let the win get away from them in the second half.

Stand-in captain Nathan Shurmer said the effort after half-time must lift for finals.

"The heat's going to likely be back again next week and that's what killed the momentum we had in those first 20 minutes," he said.

"In that time we were playing simple football, which you need to do in these conditions. It got away from us a bit and we still created chances in that second half and there was obviously a bit of bad luck with one of the ball. Passing and ball movement were still good."