Leamington 2 York City 2

Wasteful York City carelessly threw away a couple of valuable points when twice conceding in the final five minutes at lowly part-timers Leamington.

New signing David Ferguson had given them an early advantage and leading marksman Jon Parkin then added his ninth goal of the season early in the second-half.

But with manager Martin Gray appearing set to celebrate welcome back-to-back opening victories, Junior English and Liam Canavan struck late in a contest their side should already have been comfortably out of.

Gray had earlier made a couple of alterations with a debut for on loan goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell and recall for Alex Whittle. Luke Simpson dropped to the bench and Aidan Connolly missed out through injury.

The Brakes also had a change in between the posts with emergency signing Jose Veiga replacing skipper Tony Breeden, who was ruled out due to a back problem.

Newcomer Veiga was immediately forced to block Simon Heslop’s volley following Whittle’s early cross; although the 40-year-old Portuguese custodian was soon retrieving the ball from his net when Ferguson located the bottom corner after Heslop switched the play towards Adriano Moke.

The England ‘C’ international then fired into the side-netting from decent work by Amari Morgan-Smith before his subsequent cross was initially fumbled by Veiga. Jack Edwards volleyed high in reply and Parkin soon hooked over after Sean Newton’s throw was deflected into his path.

Josh Law’s free-kick was next headed against his own crossbar by defender English and Newton badly lashed the rebound wide. Parkin was then twice off-target and Newton drove over again as the visitors continued in the ascendancy up to the interval.

However, Rob Thompson-Brown shot wide following the restart and Kieran Dunbar headed directly at Peacock-Farrell, whose long 53rd minute clearance was then completely misjudged by Veiga and Parkin turned into the net.

Home substitute Curtis Revan later called the composed York loanee goalkeeper into action at his near post, before Louis Almond and Jassem Sukar made entries for Morgan-Smith and Whittle respectively.

But English suddenly forced in a reply with around five minutes remaining after Revan was initially denied by Peacock-Farrell.

And moments later Canavan curled in a shock equaliser when Revan’s long throw wasn’t properly cleared; although Parkin had a deflected effort over amid a flurry of late corners – and also handball claims on the line.

Leamington: Veiga, Mace, Gudger, Clarke, Hood, English, Dunbar, Magunda, Moore (Revan 65), Edwards (Canavan 70), Thompson-Brown (Obeng 74)

subs (unused): Taundry, Gittings

Goals: English (85), Canavan (88)

York City: Peacock-Farrell, Law, Parslow, Bencherif, Whittle (Sukar 82), Heslop, Moke, Newton, Ferguson, Morgan-Smith (Almond 77), Parkin

subs (unused): Felix, Wharton, Simpson

Goals: Ferguson (9), Parkin (53)

Ref: D. Bourne

Att: 965