THE POINTS were shared in Lincolnshire as Rugby Town and Spalding United played out a 1-1 draw which does not help either club’s NPL South Division play-off ambitions.
Rugby started the game brightly but struggled to create any clear cut chances and they found themselves behind in the 19th minute .
Dan Banister was found with an accurate and pinpoint cross from Dan Lawlor, and the striker tucked the ball home from close range.
The home side were now in control and Mattias Curley made a wonderful tackle to prevent Joe Curtis from increasing their lead in the 27th minute.
Rugby’s first clear cut chance came in the 35th minute when Mitchell Piggon failed to connect from Rob Parker’s pass, the ball falling to Callum Powell but saw his shot rebound off the post to safety.
Piggon came close again just before half-time when his glancing header from Jonathan Thorpe’s cross went agonisingly wide.
Rugby were clearly going for the equaliser and it came in the 56th minute. The ever impressive Kevin Thornton was in space in the area and cooly slotted home from ten yards from Steve Towers cracking ball.
Chances came and went for Rugby to go into the lead with Towers and Powell both going close with the latter doing a neat turn but keeper Michael Duggan saving comfortably.
It was all Rugby, with Spalding not threatening Town, and they nearly scored an own goal with Ellis Humble forcing his keeper Duggan into a fingertip save after initially blocking David Kolodynski shot.
In the 89th minute, Town had a corner and substitute Jake Healy took it and amazingly scored from it, however for some reason unbeknown to the Rugby players and fans it was disallowed.
