And it was rough justice on unbeaten Trinity as they had created the better of opportunities throughout and eventually led by defender Dave Lloyd’s close range header in the 83rd minute.
Trinity also had substitute Mark Reid’s late ‘goal’ ruled out when referee Chris Gouyette signalled for a free kick following a late challenge on a Trinity player.
The visitors were twice denied by Saints goalkeeper Garry Lloyd, early on when he tipped over Lee Jones’s rising effort and midway through the second period he did the same when fully tested by Jimmy Reilly’s angle effort from the right.
Second-placed St Peter, who have now played a game more than the teams above and below them, are now one point behind leaders St Paul’s while Trinity trail St Peter by two points and St Paul’s by three.
Trinity manager Joe Morley said: ‘It was two points dropped, definitely.
We felt the game was there for the taking as we played the better football throughout.
‘When you’re on top you must score and unfortunately we never did until very late on.
We had a nervous ten minutes at the start of the second half but we went again and I could not fault the team for their effort.
‘We’re looking forward to the St Paul’s game and I feel who ever wins that game will win the league.
‘The best thing that has happened for football is that there are still three teams in the title race which is great at this stage of the season.
Fantastic
‘The Coca-Cola Combination is getting a little stronger every season and we must continue to encourage players to come and play in it.
It would be fantastic next season if we had five or six teams challenging; that’s what we want together with the league improving every season.
‘I asked the referee why he disallowed the goal – he gave me his reason and I accepted his decision.’
St Peter scorer Conning said: ‘I thought we did well to battle back to get the draw.
It was a hard game for us too.
Trinity had some good possession in the first half and we showed good character to fight back.
‘I wasn’t getting much of the ball out wide and moving inside we seemed to do better and it paid dividends in the end as I had a little more freedom.
‘We’ve got a good record at home and when they scored I felt we were still not out of it.
You fear the worst but we battled hard and luckily it paid off for us in the end.
‘I was pleased with my finish.
I saw the goalkeeper off his line and took my chance.
‘I think Trinity are favourites now.
They’ve got the best run in and if they win all their games they will win the title.
We have to play St Paul’s twice – they are hard games and we’ll be doing our best to win both of them as well as all our other games.’
ST OUEN will fly the flag for Division II in the Le Riche Cup semi-finals following a 2-1 home win against Division I Grouville on Saturday.
The Saints, who won the Willis Cup earlier in the season, averted defeat for the 22nd time in 23 games and win with goals from Shane Carr? and Jon Evans, the latter with a super volley into a top corner for his 18th goal of the campaign.
Russell Le Feuvre netted for Grouville.
Fellow Division II clubs St Brelade and Jersey Nomads were both beaten but certainly not disgraced.
The Saints went down by the odd-goal in three at home to Division I leaders St Paul’s while Jersey Nomads succumbed 3-0 against Jersey Wanderers at the FB Fields.
Ollie Nightingale scored from 30 yards against St Paul’s with visitors on target through Craig Russell together with an own goal.
Chris Andrews notch a brace for Wanderers whose other goal was also an own goal
First Tower United – who were five down at half time – crashed to their heaviest defeat of the season: 7-0 against Jersey Scottish at La Hague Manor.
On target for the Scots were Ali Santos and Mark Brown with two apiece and Alex Snow, Luke Watson and Scott Devlin.
Three Reserves Division II teams won through to the last four in the Dog Club Trophy, the only top flight survivors were St Paul’s following a 3-1 home win against Rozel Rovers who hit the target through Paul Lennon.
St Clement defeated St Peter, last season’s runners-up, 4-3 after extra time at Les Quennevais where young Matt Rawlings scored a hat-trick for the visitors.
Paul Andrews was also on target with St Peter’s netting through Mark Stewart (two) and Pedro Maia.
Bobby Melim and Stephen du Four hit Sporting Academics’ goals in a 2-1 success against Trinity at the IJ Bathe Field while Joao Mendonca (two), Nelson De Castro and Valeiro Figueira scored Portuguese Club’s goal in a 4-0 victory against Jersey Nomads at Les Quennevais.
