Champions St John were 2-0 up at St Saviour only for St Paul’s, inspired by Daniel, to score twice in the final five minutes to earn a 2-2 draw.
With leaders First Tower running out 7-0 victors away to St Peter, Tower are now firm favourites to regain the silverware they last won in 2005.
St Paul’s manager Charlie Brown said: ‘Jemma weaved a bit of magic after coming on as a substitute, she won the penalty for our first goal scored by Suzanne Rosser and then put in an excellent corner kick for Jo Jones to powerfully nod home the equaliser.
‘It was a terrific comeback; it’s just a shame Jemma can only manage around 15 minutes at the present time because she is suffering cronic back pain.
She really troubled their left back and her performance really spurred us on.
‘St John were understrength and that evened things up quite a bit.
We were under the cosh a lot, too, because Becky Darts ran the roost in midfield for St John.
‘Goalkeeper Lisa Stallard made some terrific saves to keep us in the game as well, one save just before half time was brilliant when she showed great agility by diving full-stretch to her left to palm the ball away for a corner kick.’ St John manager Jason Lee said: ‘We had chances to have killed the game off but we didn’t take them; their goalkeeper also stopped everything.
‘Becky scored our first goal assisted by a defection and we then had a goal ruled out as well as hitting the crossbar.
The game looked over when Laura Robertson made it 2-0 only for St Paul’s to apply their late pressure to first win a penalty for handball and an excellent header to make it 2-2 with seconds remaining.
‘We’re all disappointed.
No team has scored twice against us in the final five minutes of any game in over two years but credit to St Paul’s their second goal was superb.’ Island players Louise Vandervliet and Jody Botterill had outstanding games for First Tower at St Peter.
Botterill assisted with many goals with Vandervliet scoring five times and Lisa McLaughlin twice.
Grouville collected their first points of the season after winning 2-1 away to St Brelade, who slipped into bottom place on goal-difference behind Grouville.
Lisa Phillips, on her début, and Katie Ridley netted for the winners and Ushi Neubert for the losers.
