Feeling a little tied down

The scourge of the season for the Hammerheads has become the dreaded draw, the difference between three points in the standings and letting two slip through the netting for a single point.

The draw, their fifth of the season in USL Second Division play, reared its head again Friday night with a 2-2 final against the visiting and unbeaten Cleveland City Stars.

"In the first half we played very well and we didn't put our chances away," Wilmington coach David Irving said. "(Cleveland is) a good side, there's no mistaking about that.

"But we've had a tough week; a little tired legs and stuff. In the end, it's not what we wanted."

Cleveland (6-0-3) went ahead 2-1 in the 61st minute off a corner kick play. The ball was knocked off the line and back into mid-box, where Adam Moffat pounded in his second goal of the match.

Wilmington midfielder Ross Mackenzie tied the score nine minutes later with a well-placed direct free kick. With the ball spotted a yard outside the box on a foul call, Mackenzie drilled the ball over a long wall and into the left side of the goal.

Wilmington (2-5-5) took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Charles Nweke, his third of the season. Andrew Smith assisted on the play with short pass from inside the Cleveland box. Nweke's shot was from a tight angle and in close from the right side, but he managed to slip the shot past goalkeeper Caleb Patterson.

He had another goal negated in the 16th minute on an offside call.

The City Stars leveled the

score in the 24th minute, off the foot of Moffat. The shot came after a couple of players went down on a collision near the 18 yard line.

Wilmington sent a pair of shots just left of the left post in the first half, once off a header by Brian Cvilikas in the 24th minute. Adam Williamson's rocket shot in the 39th minute sailed wide after two touches on another free kick.

"It's just the finish," Nweke said. "If we keep working I'm sure we'll get there. "We've gone seven games now (with only one) loss so it's just a matter of time."

Irving wants more quality finishes and quality passes to set up goal-scoring chances. Wilmington is creating more chances now, but the need is for more finishes.

"It isn't for the lack of effort," Irving said. "It isn't for the lack of trying. We're very young and it's that final pass. It's that final bit of quality.

"There was more pleasing things than not so pleasing things."

Next up for the Hammerheads are back-to-back home matches against first-place Charlotte on June 30 and the Harrisburg City Islanders on July 6.

With the result, Wilmington has climbed, at least temporarily, into a sixth place tie on the USL Second Division standings with Crystal Palace Baltimore, with 11 points.