JANUARY is turning into a month of extraordinary trebles in local non-League.

First there was Eastleigh and the curious tale of three missed penalties in their Vanarama Conference clash with Lincoln.

Seven days later Southern League neighbours Sholing got in the act with their trio of brothers – Dan, Barry and Byron Mason – all scoring in Saturday’s roller-coaster 3-3 South & West draw against Shortwood United at the Silverlake Arena.

While the St Mary’s-based siblings had found the net in different pairings before, this was the first time all three had notched in the same league match. But while 30-year-old Barry was chuffed to share the scoresheet with his younger brothers, his big regret was that there was no victory to crown such a fantastic family feat.

After going in 2-0 up at the break, Sholing slipped 3-2 into arrears before 27-year-old Byron, skipper of the Boatmen’s 2014 FA Vase-winning side, rode to the rescue with a point-saving header five minutes from time.

The draw stopped the rot after successive defeats to Didcot and Wimborne and came as a pleasant surprise to Barry, who missed Byron’s big moment having been substituted to give fit-again Wembley goalscoring hero Marvin McLean a 15-minute run-out.

“I didn’t know Byron had scored,” he admitted. “I’d gone back to the dressing room and I thought we’d lost.

“It was disappointing to come off knowing we’d been 2-0 up and there was nothing more I could do to help us get something out of the game.

“At 2-0 we should be seeing games out and we’re usually better than that in the second half kicking towards the clubhouse end, but we just didn’t deal with the ball in the air to their big striker (Lewis Sommers).

“It’s not as if Shortwood scored three amazing goals. We gifted them the goals by not shutting them down and by making errors.”

It had all looked so positive in the first half with 22-year-old Dan Mason nodding Sholing into an early lead. It followed TJ Cuthbertson attacking Kev Brewster’s eighth-minute corner and having his header turned onto the bar by goalkeeper Tom King.

That advantage was doubled on 25 minutes when Shortwood skipper Matt Bennett handled the ball inside the box as he tried to dispossess the youngest Mason with a sprawling tackle. Brother Barry duly drilled the ball home from the spot. The Masons could have more, but Byron – playing with a painful Achilles tendon – fired over on the run and Barry headed another inviting Brewster corner narrowly wide on the brink of half-time.

With Shortwood substitute Joe White joining 6ft 7in man mountain Sommers up front, the visitors were a different proposition after the break and two quick strikes by Adam Price and White wiped out Sholing’s lead in the blink of an eye.

Given his size, it was no surprise to see Sommers hold off his marker to get on the end of Jake Lee’s delivery from the left. But what no one had expected was the deft turn that followed as the big man fired the visitors into a 70th-minute lead.

It looked like curtains for Sholing, but the middle Mason brother had other ideas, netting a dramatic late leveller just after the tannoy announcer had named him man-of-the-match.

With five minutes remaining, the Boatmen’s skipper nodded home a close-range equaliser after yet another of Brewster’s wicked dead-ball deliveries had bounced into his path.

“We were on top in the first half with Dan holding the ball up well, Byron winning every header, (full-back) TJ Cuthbertson overlapping and Alex Sawyer and Jack Smith strong in the middle of the park,” said brother Barry.

“It’s easy for heads to go down when you lose a two-goal lead, but we showed grit and determination to get back into the game and it proved there’s heart in this team.

“It still feels like we didn’t gain a point, we lost two, but we showed good character and it’s something to build on after the two defeats we’ve had recently.”

Sholing are Lymington Town-bound tomorrow (Tuesday) in the quarter-finals of the Hampshire FA Senior Cup.