Cheadle Town 1-1 Blackpool Mechanics

Cheadle Town stood five minutes away from a deserved victory yesterday as Blackpool Mechanics took a share of the spoils to keep their unbeaten run in tact.

We were almost back to full-strength as we saw the return of Deano, Brocky, Johnny Hussain, Barry Cotterill et al; Lindon has still got one match to serve of his suspension. The football that brought Cheadle their early-season victories was back and all and was a joy to watch at times. Deano struck the post after a turn and shot and a delicious cross from the right just failed to get a connection from Vinny Braine. It was somewhat ironic, then, that Cheadle's goal was a complete fluke; Brocky sailing a speculative cross-cum-shot from 30 yards that caught the Mechs 'keeper cold.

Mechs made more of a nuisance of themselves after the break and had more of the possession in the early stages of the second half. With a team that looked as though it had an average height of 6 foot 8, their threat was always going to be from crosses and corners; CTFC had to work hard to keep them at bay from set pieces. As Mechs pressed for a foothold in the game, Cheadle went in for the kill and had plenty of chances of their own; the crossbar was rattled on one occasion...can't remember by who, though!

Alas, Cheadle's failure to kill Mechs off would haunt them with five minutes to go. There was a bit of a scramble after another set-piece was whipped in and in a flash the ball had been bundled into the back of the net. After being caught out by Brocky's effort, the Mechs 'keeper was the most relieved, which was evident in his shout of "'ave it!" over to the CTFC bench.

As the final whistle went, Trevor let out an anguished cry as he knew as well as us that this felt like two points lost rather than one point gained.

Pictures from the day can be seen by clicking here.