Nantwich Town 2 Hednesford Town 2

NANTWICH Town will be kicking themselves for not grabbing all three points against nine-man Hednesford Town, once again letting themselves down with their defending at set pieces.

Jimmy Quinn described his side’s defending as ‘very poor’ after Nantwich failed to put their depleted hosts to the sword following captain Darren Campion and Jamey Osborne’s red cards.

But it was not all doom and gloom for the visitors, who saw lethal attacker Michael Lennon score his 100th goal for the club to give his side the lead in the first half.

Matt Lowe’s long ball was not dealt with by Ben Bailey and Lennon ran through to chip the ball past Dan Crane.

It got better for Quinn’s men five minutes later, when the Pitmen’s captain was dismissed for pushing Lennon in the face.

But despite the numerical advantage, Dabbers did not trouble the keeper again until the second half, when debutant Lee Steele went close only to be denied by Crane.

The visitors equalised against the run of play on the hour mark, when Chris Clements’ corner was powerfully headed home by the unchallenged Dunkley.

Hednesford’s reduction to nine men following Osborne’s second yellow card did not seem to trouble them greatly, as they took the lead with 15 minutes remaining when another Clements free kick was prodded home by Dunkley.

Nantwich equalised with 10 minutes to go when substitute Zak Foster beat two defenders to cut back for Simon Everall's first league goal for Nantwich, but despite pushing on for the winner, Nantwich were forced to settle for a disappointing draw.

Nantwich: Brain, Lowe, McDonald, MacPherson (Maguire, 86), Bailey, Moss, Cooke, Flynn (C), Steele (Everall, 68), Lennon, Urwin (Foster, 77). Subs: Mitchell, Solovjovs.