The game was in the balance until the final whistle with Joeys pressing hard for an equaliser in the final minutes, but FC scrambled to deny them.

The home side struck first, Beau Langenbaker swooping on a turnover in the midfield and winning the foot-race to set up a one-on-one with the keeper.

Inverell came within a whisker of replying with under 10 minutes remaining in the first half, with skipper Jackson Haussler hitting the post after some sharp work inside the box to get himself front on with the goal.

They eventually levelled around 10 minutes into the second half, Kyle King picking up the scraps from a spot kick that FC keeper Kameron Manks came out and parried away.

Diving to his right Manks got a hand to the follow-up shot but found King, who did the rest.

But FC hit straight back through David Richardson to restore their one-goal advantage.

Langenbaker then looked to have sealed the win for them when he buried his second with not long to play, but it was disallowed for a push in the back, leaving the game on a knife-edge.

FC coach Greg Bartlett was delighted with his sides performance labelling it one of the better efforts he’s seen from an FC side for a couple of years.

“They played as a team from start to finish,” Bartlett said.

That was for him one of the most pleasing aspects.

“Right from the start to the end they worked for each other,” he said.

The way they scrambled at the end was indicative of that.

Bartlett admitted to a few nerves in those final minutes.

“They had us under pressure right to the end,” he said.

“We probably put too much pressure on ourselves pushing back like we did.”

He did note that their passing game was “far better” than the previous week.

“Last week we were pretty disjointed in attack,” he said.

Their eternal problem, their finishing was also a lot better, although they still missed opportunities.

After reclaiming the lead they had a couple of chances to push out to a two-goal advantage.

Langenbaker hit the post, and not long after Kurt Barrow unleashed a rocket from outside the box, but a diving Inverell keeper Kyle Chilcott got a hand to it. 

Langenbaker had a couple of other chances throughout the game but fired wide or was denied by the Joeys defence.

Bartlett paid credit to Joeys for their performance.

It was their first hit-out of the season, which was in the end probably a telling factor.

“Our blokes gave it their all but in the end our match fitness cost us,” Joeys manager Mick Migheli said.

They were also a bit rusty in their combinations.

That wasn’t to take anything away from FC and Migheli thought the 2-1 scoreline was probably reflective of the game.