“Bit disappointed with the goal we conceded and probably could have had a few more. But take nothing away from Avondale, they’re a good side, playing with a man down they still caused us problems.”

The visitors had been lucky not to be down 1-0 in just the second minute of play when an attempted clearance from defender Charlie Beverly collected naught but fresh air and allowed  White to swing in a close-range shot that forced an early save from Chris Oldfield.

The red card 15-minutes later, despite its somewhat dubious nature, was also an unfortunate high-point on what was a game defined by its physical nature.

Both the Cannons and Avengers threw themselves about with reckless abandon across the course of the 90 minutes, with the benches of both sides frequently rising with incredulity in response to the heavy challenges laid down by their opponents.

“I think [the physicality was] because there’s so much at stake,” Taylor said.

“It’s two of the sides that want to bet here at the end of the season and there’s bragging rights.

“We said coming in the first 20 minutes were going to be very physical and it turned out that way.

“I thought the referee, he did control it well. I thought generally his decisions were good.

“I’d have been a bit pissed if I’d have been on the end of that send-off, though, so that could have gone either way. But you take those, because in a couple of weeks that will go against us.”

Avondale Head Coach Zoran Markovski did swing a double substitution to begin the second half, throwing Yusuf Ahmed and Dillon Jakubi into the breach, and went an attack-minded back three, but it was the Cannons and their one-man advantage that produced the better football

Guest and Knowles forced back-to-back strong saves from Oldfield 52nd minute and White hit the post in the 80th.

Markovski’s side, down a man and chasing the game against a rampant Cannons, increasingly struggled to get anything going as the second half progressed – not creating much in the way of anything that would present a challenge to goalkeeper Nick Feely until Robertson’s late consolation.