Higgs took his season’s tally to 21 goals with the 94th-minute equaliser in an eight-goal thriller to earn the visitors a deserved share of the spoils in a rollercoaster game they led 3-0 after just 18 minutes.
The result leaves the Rocks second from bottom in the table and 10 points from the safety zone after fellow relegation battlers Hastings United and Hendon — both of whom have played fewer games — drew. Bowers & Pitsea lost and sit at the foot of the standings six points adrift of the Nyewood Lane outfit.
The side managed by Michael Birmingham and Jamie Howell raced in to a commanding three-goal lead thanks to Higgs’ 11-minute cracker followed by a bizarre headed own goal from home keeper Mackenzie Foley and Jasper Mather’s fine 18th-minute solo effort.
Carshalton pulled a goal back when Fabio Camacho-Saraiva struck in the 43rd minute from the spot and his effort seemingly did wonders for the home side’s confidence and they came out for the second half with all guns blazing.
Substitute Oluwabunmi Babajide made a big impression up front and rattled home a goal to make it 3-2 on 57 minutes before Kwaku Frimpong brought parity for the home side at 3-3. Babajide looked to have broken Rocks hearts when he scored on 85 minutes but there was enough fight left in the visitors to scrap their way back in to the fray.
And it was Higgs who reacted with admirable alacrity to smash home the equaliser from close range after a Bognor corner – and the goal sparked incredibly joyous scenes from the sizeable contingent of travelling away fans in the 670 crowd.
It was no more than the Nye Camp charges deserved for their commitment, desire and lung-busting willingness to fight for the cause.
Joint boss Howell praised his troops for their efforts and made special mention of two-goal hero Higgs. He told Peter Hood from Rocks Radio: “It was a topsy-turvy game. Going 3-0 up through their mistakes but we took them well. In the second half we didn’t put any pressure on the ball and we let them hurt us and it’s a shame given how precious points are for us at the minute.
“Tommy has been excellent. Technically he is a superb player and you can see his quality. We must learn that we can’t let teams off, we need to put pressure on the ball and to dictate where we are going to send then when we are defending — because if you give good players time on the ball they are going to but you and they did.”
Birmingham was able to bring a light-hearted moment to his post-match comments as he likened the Rocks recent run to that of a play-off contenders. He said: “Fair play to Carshalton for their second half display. They really squeezed top the pitch and put us under immense pressure in stopping us trying to play out but if anything, we were little bit to wasteful and tried to force the issue too many times.
“But that’s seven points from nine now and we need to take that as a massive plus — in the 94th minute we went and got the fourth goal so we showed good character. Yes we were 3-0 up away from home against a good side and got pegged back to 4-3 down and then equalised so we ended on a positive and it was brilliant.
“Seven points from nine and we’ve told the players that holidays are cancelled because that’s play-off form. Me and Jamie can have a little laugh about it but seriously the boys are out on their feet in the changing room. If they had protected the ball a little bit more and had a better second half then maybe we would have come away with three points but don’t take anything away from the opposition.”
1 Ryan Hall, 2 Harvey Whyte, 3 Dion Jarvis, 4 Calvin Davies (C), 5Harvey Rew, 6 Chad Field, 7 Bailey Smith, 8 Doug Tuck, 9 Tommy-Lee Higgs, 10 Matt Burgess, 11 Jasper Mather. Substitutes; 12 Preston Woolston, Jasper Mather (90+9′), 14 Dan Gifford, Doug Tuck (62′) 15 Freddie Chester, Bailey Smith (80).
