A sublime equaliser from Jesse Howe saw Tiverton Town keep their unbeaten pre-season record with an entertaining 2-2 draw at home to Truro City on Tuesday.

Tivvy enjoyed the better of a lively first half, but fell behind on 42 minutes through Isaac Vassell’s goal.

But the hosts were level two minutes later as Owen Howe smashed home a vicious free-kick from 20 yards to leave the sides equal at the break.

A lapse in concentration allowed the pacey Les Afful to tee up Cody Cooke to restore the White Tigers’ lead.

But Jesse Howe cut inside from the right before curling home a wonderful effort to draw the teams level.

“What a couple of goals those were,” enthused Tivvy manager Martyn Rogers after the game.

“Our two goals were top-drawer. You will have a job finding better goals than that all season.

“Owen’s goal was amazing, but I think Jesse then tried to top his brother’s.”

“I was delighted with the performance overall and we could have won it at the end. It is only one game though.”

Jamie Mudge was again handed a starting berth up front alongside Owen Howe, and it was the former Tiverton striker who almost broke the deadlock early on.

His strike was superbly tipped onto the post by former Tivvy shot-stopper Mike Searle, only for the ball to come off the woodwork, hit the keeper again and roll just wide.

Josh Searle was lively in attack and industrious in defence, and he linked up well with Mudge on several occasions down the left.

It was an enterprising half from the hosts which made Truro’s opener all the more galling, Dan Bickley’s hopeful lob into the box finding Vassell, who had a ludicrous amount of time six yards out to stroke home.

Still, Owen Howe’s free-kick soon buoyed the Yellows again as his rasping effort found a gap in the wall and left the keeper with no chance.

Truro made wholesale changes at the break, and it was one of those replacements – Afful – who created their second, outsprinting the defence before leaving Cody Cooke with a simple six-yard tap-in.

The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Tivvy for a good 10 minutes, but they found a second wind and produced some promising moments in attack which bode well for the season ahead.

Tom Tricker had two chances in as many seconds, seeing his first shot saved by Mike Searle before blasting the rebound just over.

A neat move down the right ended with substitute Khalid Badavi – who injected some much-needed pace into proceedings – screwing his shot wide.

The impressive Tricker then drew an excellent save from the keeper after out-muscling his man, before the searing pace of Badavi caused more chaos in the defence.

It looked like Tivvy’s enterprising play was going to go unrewarded, only for Jesse Howe to come up with a superb leveller, cutting inside from the right before bending a superb shot into the top corner.