Two of the hardest teams to beat in the Northern Premier League duly played out a draw in an entertaining encounter at the Quickline Logistics Arena which may have left the visitors wondering how they failed to take all the points.

Still inside the first two minutes Alex Byrne's return ball over the advancing Luke Pilling saw Darius Osei just blocked out at the far post by Clive Smith who shortly afterwards picked up a booking for taking down the Ashton forward, the only change from Ashton's FA Cup victory over Scarborough replacing the injured Louis White.

The home manager Neil Reynolds had taken a chance in picking ex-Robin Matty Regan apparently sporting a broken nose from the defeat at Lancaster, this backfired after just 10 minutes as he needed to be replaced by Patrick Gamble.

19 minutes in a bad square pass fom Mikey O'Neill gave Jake Burton the chance to test Eastham low down but nine minutes later Osei cut inside and his delivery to the near post was turned home by Jason Gilchrist and seven minutes before the break Byrne's right wing cross saw Will Tomlinson's effort incredibly cleared off the line by home captain Dean Furman for a corner.

Right on half time terrific play across the edge of the area saw O'Neill fire in a right foot curler which was tipped away by ex-Ashton keeper Pilling with the resulting corner headed home by Sean Newton to the sound of the ref's whistle for an infringement.

One minute after the restart Byrne and Luke Burke combined for the right back to fire narrowly past the far post but five minutes later Guy Hall collected Ben Hough's return pass and was tripped just inside the area by Byrne with Ben Hardcastle sending Eastham the wrong way from the spot.

Byrne's cross then somehow stayed out as a header was scraped off the line by Pilling with the follow up being fired against the bar and Byrne's delivery from a corner was then tipped around the post before a mix up in the Robins' defence ended with Furman's shot deflected narrowly wide.

With nine minutes left Ashton's latest corner was kept out by a combination of Pilling and Furman before Byrne's latest delivery saw Sam Baird's header miraculously clawed out by Pilling and two minutes later Newton's crossfield pass saw Byrne denied by the Rylands custodian on his way to a man of the match award.

Att: 388

Team: Eastham, Burke, Doherty, Newton, O'Neill (Navarro 71), Baird, Byrne, Rowe, Gilchrist (Denton 88), Osei, Tomlinson. SNU: Smith, Taylor, Rutherford.