Kieran O’Dwyer salvaged a point for Vanbrugh with a last minute equaliser as James were left stunned at the final whistle.
The midfielder capitalised on a horrendous defensive error by Simon Kreienbaum to fire past Luke Bradley and keep Vanbrugh’s faint title hopes alive.
In the first half, James went ahead through Freddie Ferrao’s attempted cross which went straight in at the back post. Then, James Offord’s header was controversially disallowed for offside to keep the score at 1-0 going into the second half.
But Vanbrugh were visibly up for it after the interval and had the bulk of possession, before a piece of good fortune saved their skins.
The result means Derwent now have a four-point cushion ahead of James, while Vanbrugh are now seven points adrift of the league favourites.
Vanbrugh started the match the brighter of the two sides with John Gill, who played in central defence last week, dictating the game from the centre of midfield.
They had their first chance after a lovely passing move, Rory Sharkey cultivating a delicious pass to Stanier on the right via a clever Rous-Ross dummy. Stanier’s first-time cross was left by Lewis but O’Dwyer wasted his shot over the bar from six yards.
Sharkey then went on one of his industrious runs on the left, beating two players, but his cross for Rous-Ross was over-hit. James only had one meaningful effort at the Vanbrugh goal until this point; Richard Baxter shooting wide from distance in speculative fashion.
Their goal, therefore, came somewhat against the run of play on 27 minutes. James Offord picked up the ball just outside the Vanbrugh penalty area and slipping a pass to Ferrao on the left. His intended cut-back cross to Offord was sliced unintentionally, wrong-footing goalkeeper Wilson and trickling into the far corner.
From then on, James were well on top. A minute later, right-back George Clark whipped in an excellent cross for Offord to head in, unmarked at the back post. But the offside decision was given, infuriating the James players.
Offord continued to cause problems for Vanbrugh’s defence, shooting wide when he might have done better after Henry Cust failed to clear a bouncing ball. Then, Josh Brownlow eluded the attentions of Max Brewer with a mazy run to strike at goal, but Wilson saved smartly with his feet.
Despite Vanbrugh having almost all the possession in the second half, James created the best chances early on. Good interplay between Offord and Brownlow opened up a shooting opportunity for Cooke but his shot was off-target. Then, left-back Jonny Hyde delivered a low free-kick from the right into a crowd of players, but somehow nobody got a touch and it fizzed just wide.
Vanbrugh responded bravely, however. An inswinging Stanier corner was headed over wastefully by an unmarked Gill from eight yards, when he should have worked the ‘keeper.
Then, O’Dwyer had two efforts just outside the area flash wide of the post, the second a volley after an increasingly tense James only half-cleared another Stanier corner.
As a last roll of the dice, James Wilson punted a long, high ball into the James half which was allowed to bounce. Then in trying to head the ball away, Simon Kreienbaum mistimed his leap with the consequence the ball went backwards instead of forwards, straight into the path of O’Dwyer. The midfielder coolly lifted his shot over the onrushing Bradley to send Vanbrugh’s supporters wild.
After the game, Vanbrugh captain James Wilson praised his team’s never-say-die attitude: ‘We kept battling until the end and we were much improved in the second half. To get a late goal makes the result feel like a win.’
But James captain Richard Baxter criticised the disallowed goal decision: ‘I know refereeing is a difficult job but it was a poor decision to disallow it. But we only have ourselves to blame for giving it away at the end. I can’t fault the commitment from any of my players though, I thought we gave a hundred per cent.’
Vision MOTM: Kieran O’Dwyer