Drayton title hopes hit by draw

Market Drayton’s Midland Alliance title aspirations were left hanging by the thinnest of threads after they were held to a draw by Shropshire rivals Shifnal.

Simon Line’s men have managed just one point form a possible six over the Easter period and now find themselves well adrift of the top two, Atherstone and Loughborough Dynamo.

Shifnal remain in the bottom half of the table, but manager Darren Goodall was pleased with his side’s performance.

“I thought we should have won it in the end,” Goodall said.

“When we equalised at 2-2 I thought we had the upper hand and that we would go on to win it.

“It wasn’t to be but we had four central midfielders (Danny Rochester, Bruce Wheeler, Adam Price and Adam Caine) missing so I would have taken a point before the start.

Shifnal made a blistering start and were only denied on opening goal after two minutes by a fine save by Andy Pryce from Linden Dovey’s 22-yard free kick.

But a minute later they were ahead when Tim Jackson curled the ball in from the right and Ben Jevons met it with a thumping header past Pryce.

The hosts hit back, and drew level on 16 minutes when the ball was lofted in from the right, and Tom Rogers stole in to smash past former AFC Telford goalkeeper Steve Taylor from close range.

Drayton enjoyed the better of the play in the run-up to half-time, and took the lead a minute after the interval when nobody made contact with a Nicky Porter free-kick and the ball went into the net.

Drayton almost extended their lead in the 58th minute when Grant Goodhead latched on to a long throw and let fly from the edge of the penalty area, only to see Phil Bates block the shot on the line.

And they were made to pay when Shifnal levelled the scores 14 minutes from time when Jevons headed home a corner from Dovey.