A POINT ON THE ROAD

Needham Market picked up another 1-1 point on the road, at Royston on Tuesday night.

Tom Rothery made 1 change to Saturday's draw at Barwell, Ryan Miles starting in place of Jamie McGrath, with the latter on the bench.

Needham started brightly, creating a great chance on 6 minutes, a great sliding challenge from Tommy Smith allowed Ben Hunter the space to drive forward before threading Ryan Miles free down the left wing, whose sumptuous dangerous low wrapped ball across the six yard box was turned behind for a corner at the far post.

James Bradbrook then comfortably held a low effort, while Ryan Miles at the other end saw a good run onto the edge of the box deflected just wide of the top near, left-hand, corner for a corner.

Iaciofano was then cautioned for a late sliding challenge in his own half on 9 minutes, who drove onto the left-hand edge of the box but fired wide of the bottom far corner on 14 minutes.

Bradbrook then comfortably held a left wing free-kick on his line on 17 minutes, as Royston broke the deadlock arguably against the run of play on 20 minutes.

A through ball down the right-hand side threaded Joe Iaciofano through to find the bottom far corner.

Hammond was booked for a late foul on the half-way line on 22 minutes, as the Marketmen remained in control of possession.

Ingram flicked a left wing throw across the box only for the keeper to collect unchallenged on 29 minutes, before Needham had a 33rd minute equaliser ruled out for a controversial offside.

Kyle Hammond's left wing corner was partially tipped away by the keeper, falling to Jake Dye at the far post to poke home but for a flag to rule it out as Needham remained on top.

Ingram then headed a left wing cross to the far post wide into side-netting, while Jake Dye's 36th minute ferocious 25-yard strike whistled just wide of the far post.

Ryan Miles saw a 38th minute close range effort smothered behind for a corner, before Dye met a 44th minute left wing corner at the near post only to flick his low shot narrowly wide.

Myles Cowling was booked soon after the break, though Needham started the second half brightly, Luke Ingram's 51st minute brilliant right wing cross was met by Joe Neal ahead of the keeper at close range at the near post, whose effort looped agonisingly over onto the roof of the net.

Ben Hunter meanwhile fired a partially cleared 55th minute Hammond right wing corner back towards goal, just evading Jake Dye free at close range as the keeper gathered the low strike, while a 72nd minute attack saw Ollie Saunders weave into space inside the area only to see his low shot blocked.

Bradbrook however held a close range header on 74 minutes, while Neal's fierce low shot from a quickly taken short 30-yard free-kick was beaten away by the keeper, as the home stopper was booked for time wasting.

The hosts received another booking, as Needham deservedly equalised on 84 minutes, after having the majority of the ball Luke Ingram punished a handball in the box, rifling home into the bottom left-hand corner despite a couple of minutes delay.

Royston hit the crossbar inside the box from a 90th minute left wing free-kick, before Royston fired a 93rd strike over from the left-hand side.

Joe Neal saw a 94th minute low driven shot from outside the box blocked, as the points were shared.

Needham return to home soil on Saturday for the first of three home matches, against Eynesbury Rovers (3pm).

Coach Patrick Brothers reflects on last night's draw.

DK: Probably another two points dropped?

PB: Yeah, based on possession and chances created, I think so, but like we just said in there, if you're not clinical and you don't put your chances away, then yeah, I think based on that, a point's a point basically.

DK: Having gone in behind at the break, do you feel aggrieved?

PB: No, football is exactly what it is. At the end of the day, if you don't take your chances, and to be fair, they had one or two and their front man, I think it was, dispatched it. One nil at the break, not ideal, but in the changing room, we're still positive and said, well, we need to continue doing what we're doing and hopefully our fortunes or hopefully our quality in front of goal changes, and yeah, coming away from a draw is a positive.

DK: Is it just being clinical? Is it luck? Is it a combination?

PB: Definitely a combination. Football works in weird ways. You can dominate a game of football and lose. You can get battered for 95 minutes and win. So a few tweaks, a few things to work on, a few things to talk to the players about, but the way we're playing at the moment is positive. We are creating chances. It'd be a worry if we weren't, and yeah, hopefully our fortunes turn. People say that we had a penalty today. Maybe that's a little bit of a luck we've got, but yeah, we're always positive in there, the way we play, the way we're moving the ball and what we're creating. It's just that final end product or that final bit of magic at the end, which we're currently lacking in the last couple of fixtures.

DK: After having a goal ruled out that looked close, to say the least, that kind of shows the fine margins in football.

PB: Yeah, it's hard to comment on referees because everyone will have their opinion, but at the end of the day, you've got to trust what they're doing. And if the line-up says it's offside, then it's offside. I spoke to a few of the players. We don't think it was, but I'm sure Royston would have said it was offside. So look, we had enough chances to score more than one disallowed goal.

DK: What's the feeling having came away from two away games in a few days with two points where it could have been more?

PB: Yeah, well, you say at the start of the year, if you make your home form really good and then you go away and pick up valuable points like your ones and your threes when you can, then you're going to be at the top half of the table. In reflection, we have dominated Barwell and Royston, in my opinion. We should be on at least four points from them two games, but we haven't lost, so take the positives and move on to Saturday, which is the FA Cup.

DK: What is the message going into that cup tie?

PB: For me, it's a great opportunity to get to the next round. No disrespect to the opposition, but we should be beating them, and if we play to our levels, we don't get complacent. We play with confidence, play with no fear, it'll be a positive day.

DK: How important is it that we take today out of it when we go into Saturday?

PB: Yeah, football's brilliant because you can learn from the game before and hopefully put it right the game after. So you take the goodness out of today. So you know our position in football, some of the chances we've created, and we develop that by obviously taking our chances, but you've always got to be positive. No matter what happens, there's always positives to take, and yeah, cup football's a slightly different kettle of fish, but we'll go into it confident, for sure.

DK: The one pleasing thing tonight is that we've kept going until the end and we've got that equaliser that we really deserve.

PB: Yeah, the mentality of the lads has been brilliant. We don't get too high when we win games 3-0 at Bromsgrove. And we don't get too low when we lose to teams like Leiston. So the boys have been brilliant. They're working hard. They're doing everything they can do to get positive results, and yeah, like you said earlier, maybe a little bit of luck goes your way or a change of fortunes, but I've got no doubt that we'll start picking up more points.