By Dominic Bowen
USW held on for an opening league win against University of Gloucestershire, despite a late red card at the Sport Park.
Tomas Evans was dismissed with seven minutes of normal time remaining after a bringing down Gloucestershire striker Ethan Jones to halt a counter-attack from a corner.
USW were 4-3 ahead at the time, and saw out the victory despite being a man down for the closing minutes.
The home side were 2-0 behind after just seven minutes.
First, a calm Sam Jun finish from a cross put Gloucestershire 1-0 in front, then Giovanni Cavazos scrambled in a second after a goalmouth scramble.
USW showed signs of getting back into the game when number 10 Victor Angaye went close with a header just past the post.
But Angaye made no mistake soon after, heading home from a cross from the left hand side by centre-back Max Matthews.
It was level at 2-2 moments later when Angye slotted a penalty given when Gloucestershire’s Connor Muir committed a foul.
Midway through the second half, Archie Tooth scored with a left-footed volley from the centre of the box to give USW the lead for the first time.
There was more drama to come.
In the 80th minute Cavazos equalised for the visitors with a right-footed shot to the bottom left corner after a quick move saw him breeze past Matthews.
A draw looked the likely outcome at that stage – before an outside-of-the-boot assist from Tooth set up Saif Ratul for the winner.
Evans’ dismissal meant USW could never relax, but they dug in and held on for victory.