Mick Sullivan’s much hyped return to Moatside may have helped draw a season’s best crowd of 373 but the game ultimately turned into a damp squib as both sides struggled to overcome a rock hard uneven pitch.

On the day a point a piece probably better suited the 16th placed hosts, but even this slender return may also prove crucial for Leatherhead as they continue their quest for a play off spot.

The writing was on the wall for players and spectators alike when straight from the kick off a simple pass along the ground hit an uneven patch and leapt shoulder high, and indeed this was to set the tone for an uninspiring afternoon’s fayre.

After an insipid opening 20 minutes the game did improve marginally, and after Kev Terry had tested Ian Chatfield in the home goal with a flicked header, he really should have opened the scoring moments later when bursting clear of the Merstham defence.

Chatfield managed to get enough on his under hit shot, to enable Tom Hughes to race back and clear off the line via the right hand post, but this merely served to leave Terry with an open goal from three yards out, however from the angle he contrived to hit the outside of the same post.

Five minutes later it looked as Tanners would pay for this profligacy as Dan Dean needlessly fouled Wes Goggin in the far corner of the area, but Colin Harris comfortably saved Dale Marvell’s poor spot kick.

The Merstham strikers were opting to shoot from range, but these efforts only served to trouble the conifers rising high above the far goal, whilst Tanner’s attempts to penetrate down the flanks were thwarted by their own poor passing, so it was little surprise that the teams went in level at the break.

The second continued in much the same vein and it wasn’t until the game entered the final quarter that both teams finally upped the tempo and made a concerted effort to take the three points.

In the 70th minute Luke Pigden found himself clear on goal, but only found the grateful arms of Chatfield with his weak shot, and then Dom O Shea then fired narrowly wide from substitute Tommy William’s cross,

For Merstham Marvell then curled a free kick onto the top of the Leatherhead net, before Hughes clipped the top of the bar with a powerful header from a right wing corner, before both sides had great chances to win it in the closing minutes.

Firstly Pigden again had a clear sight at goal but directed an unchallenged header straight at Chatfield from 8 yards out, and then Gavin Gordon missed an even simpler header for the hosts, hitting the side netting after Harris had brilliantly parried Billy Marshall’s fierce drive.

Leatherhead: Harris, Coke, Boulter, Dean, Goodwell, Macleod, Pigden, Simmons, Thompson (Williams), Terry (O Shea), Andrews (Corbett)