North Greenford Utd 0 Banstead Athletic 0

Banstead came to North Greenford Utd on the back of two defeats hoping to stop the slide down the table, writes Bob Lockyer.

On a good surface, they started well after a mistake by the Utd defence Ross White narrowly missed with a shot that went just wide of the post.

In goal for the As was Mark Rouse for the injured Paul Brady, and what a man-of-the-match afternoon he had.

He shouted instructions to the team kept them on their toes, his distribution of the ball was good.

On 12 minutes Banstead had to make a substitution with Shane Sinclair coming on for Alistair John.

Dean Sammut was close with a shot after some neat work by the As.

United had chances themselves but Banstead were able to keep things tight at the back, there were a few scary moments but all in all this was a much better performance than of late for the As, they seem to be dertermined to get at least a point for their endeavours.

Things took a turn on 35 minutes, when Patterson-Bohner of Banstead and Luc Kenny were shown straight red cards for an incident that happened on the pitch by the dugouts.

On 38 minutes, the As Leon Wallace crossed and United's keeper managed to palm the ball away.

Second half the As came out again strong from the off, United had two corners and both times Rouse managed to save well.

Then another sending-off on 49 minutes - the ref thought the Banstead's Ross White had been pulled back by Jack Lisi as last man.

With United playing now with nine men, Banstead found more room.

The home side were panicking and resorting to the long-ball game.

A cracking shot drew saw a full-stretch save from Rouseto.

Banstead substituted Wallace for Stephan Martin on 81 minutes.

There was a close call for the visitors when a free-kick for United just went over the bar.

The last few minutes was frantic with United pushing for the winner but, to their credit, Banstead were determined to keep a clean sheet.

Right on full-time Gavin Quintin did lob the ball from just in United's half goalwards but the home keeper was just able to push it away.

It was a more together performance from Banstead, to come away with a point from the leaders of the division was massive.

Banstead: Rouse, Patterson, Hawkins, Sammut, Davidson, Hughes, John, Quintin, Wallace, Patterson-Bohner, White. subs used: Sinclair, Siefers, Martin. not used: Brady, Barnes.