WHEN Paul McCartney penned the Beatles' number one hit The Long and Winding Road in 1970, Robbie Lardner was a six-year-old boy entertaining dreams of football stardom.

Now 42, Lardner is fast approaching the end of his own long and winding road on the football field, but the Calne player-manager can still see a few twists on the horizon. Never one to let it be, Lardner has changed the course of several games as a late substitute and Saturday's crunch clash with title rivals Bideford was no exception.

Lardner's clever flick in the 77th minute released the returning Kevin Banks on the right, and his cross was smashed home by Danny Jones who rescued a deserved point for the Lilywhites. The evergreen Lardner was keen to push any praise onto his young stars, who could have won the game with a typically strong finish at Bremhill View.

He said: "My job is to come on and settle things down in the last 20 minutes. It's easy at the moment because I've got plenty of young lads who are willing to do the running for me.

"I would love to carry on playing for a few more years, but one day I just won't be able to get out of bed.

"Although my best years are behind me, I'm not ready to hang the boots up just yet. I may be 42, but in my mind I'm still a 21-year-old."

Bideford began with attacking intent on Saturday and Calne were fortunate to survive a spell of concerted pressure in the opening 15 minutes.

Kevin Banks took hold of the midfield area with some tenacious tackling, showing no signs of the knee injury that had kept him sidelined for seven weeks.

Ten minutes before the break Calne fashioned the first real threat on goal when James Lye raced onto Glenn Armstrong's reverse pass and fired narrowly wide. But a rare defensive lapse on the stroke of half time gifted the Devon side a precious opening goal. Steve Casey's back-header dropped short of Chris Astley and Robbie Gough pounced to put his side in front.

The Lilywhites were denied what seemed a certain penalty when Armstrong was hauled down in the box but his appeals were waved away. Calne survived a scare after 59 minutes when Ellis Laight lashed a volley over the bar after good interplay with Gough.

But the hosts got their reward for dogged perseverance when Jones arrived late to bury Banks' centre with 13 minutes remaining.

Armstrong almost won the game at the death, but Bideford stopper Kenny Griffiths did well to block his low drive.