Neither side could lay much claim to having the ascendancy in what was a generally uneventful clash at a gloomy Eslaforde Park. Both sides traded a goalmouth clearance or two, in each half, but in truth neither side had the opposition goalkeepers worried at any stage whatsoever, neither called into significant question all afternoon.

Manager Matt Evans made two changes from the side that drew 1-1 with Hucknall Town last weekend, both of them enforced as departed goalkeeper Liam Flitton and injured striker Tyrell Shannon-Lewis (Back) dropped out of the side. In came debutant goalkeeper Anandhu Rajendran and forward man Harry Gibbons who made his first start for the Greens since joining the club last month. Visitors Shirebrook Town meanwhile were defeated 4-0 at Newark Town last time out and they made just one change from that side, Bradley Johnston coming in for Lewis Russell who dropped to the bench.

In a steady start, it took over 20 minutes for either side to create a meaningful opportunity, and that went the way of the visitors who were mightily unlucky to find Harrison Ainslie in the right place to hook Ewan Sutherill’s effort off the line. Before that, Ben Robson had been the man to create the best of the minimal attacking breakthroughs twice employing Mitchell Leivers to first shepherd a drive wide of the post before calling upon him to catch his tame header.

If the breakthrough were to come, it looked set to come from the head of Sutherill who again found a Greens body on the line – Jake Henderson this time – to deny his well-placed header. Back at the other end and the Greens were stringing some nice passages of play together but were unable to finish them off with any real quality – Fields and Whalen combining well to allow Josh Parker to head into the side netting the closest the hosts came to piercing the net.

The second period continued much to the same tune as both sides battling qualities could not be questioned, but it was certainly not conducive to creating a pacy end-to-end contest. The Greens best opportunity to find a breakthrough came with 10 minutes remaining when Harry Gibbons couldn’t quite force the ball over the line following an almighty goalmouth scramble instigated by Ryan Flitton’s corner.

Debutant keeper Rajendran – who’d enjoyed a quiet opening game – was required to collect Sutherill’s scuffed effort with five minutes remaining before Mosab Gadour’s acrobatic overhead kick flew wide of the mark in the first minute of stoppage time – a rare moment of excitement in an otherwise steady afternoon.

Words: Oliver Atkin