DEVIZES Town had to settle for a point after throwing away a 3-1 lead against Malmesbury Vics in a hotly-contested local derby on Tuesday night.

Darran Walters’ hosts were in comfortable shape at half time after a dominant 45 minutes saw them hold a 3-1 advantage going into the interval.

Robbie Mitchell broke the deadlock with 20 minutes on the clock and 10 minutes later, things got better for the hosts as Malmesbury’s Krystian Hext was sent off for kicking out.

Despite this, Malmesbury managed to get back on level terms, with Tyler Quinnell lashing home three minutes later.

The numerical advantage then began to show as Devizes grabbed a double thanks to another from Mitchell and Jordan Matthews chipping in.

After the break, Malmesbury opted for a tactical change, with Ed Wilkins partnering Shane Bumphrey upfront.

It seemed to do the trick when Bumphrey slotted home a penalty in the 70th minute after Jamie Packer was bundled over.

Packer then made it 3-3 five minutes later when he headed home a Lee Fernandez cross with 15 minutes left to play.

Depleted Malmesbury managed to take the lead for the first time in the match when Bumphrey slotted home with 80 minutes played.

But the game would have one more twist as Devizes’ Tom Slater grabbed a last-gasp equaliser.

Town boss Walters was left baffled as to how his side managed to surrender their 3-1 advantage.

“We were brilliant in the first half, we played really well and deserved to be in the lead but after the second half, we were guilty of giving the ball away,’’ said the Nursteed Road chief, whose side were walloped 7-0 at Keynsham Town on Saturday.

“Then we gave away a penalty to make it 3-2 and with the rest of the game to go, it was a different game as they threw everything at us.

“I don’t know why we have this habit of pressing the self destruct button, it’s happened again and it’s cost us two points, but that’s football and we’ll go again.”

Vics meanwhile, were winners on Saturday with 1-0 success over Bishop Sutton courtesy of a Bumphrey strike to take his tally to four in the previous five games.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Westbury managed to record a win as they defeated Calne 2-1 at Meadow Lane.

Ollie Webb had put the Lilywhites in the lead just after half an hour before Connor McKay and George Bendle put Westbury in front to claim all three points.

It was Calne’s second 2-1 defeat in succession after Saturday’s home reverse to Ashton & Backwell, when Kris Beasley netted for the hosts.

Also at the weekend, Nigel Tripp’s Corsham put in a solid performance which was rewarded with a 2-0 win.

After going into the break a goal up through Phil Baker, they then added a second through Jon Bazley.