After the last gasp win over Cleethorpes Town on Saturday an expectant Leek Town faithful turned up on a blustery Tuesday night at the F Ball Community Stadium hoping to see their team build on that result and push on but will have left disappointed as an underpar and disjointed display resulted in a 2-2 draw with Hyde United.

The result was the right one, as neither side did enough to win the game that produced a poor spectacle for the 402 fans in attendance, plus those watching online at Clubber TV, with little attacking quality shown.

In fact, there were more bookings in the game (nine) than shots on goal or actual chances created with the match officials drawing the ire of the home fans on a number of occasions and, in particular, with two yellow cards that could conceivably have been red cards for the visitors.

Leek only showed one change from the Cleethorpes game with Alex Hurst replacing Ollie Shenton, but the Blues never got going in a first half that saw Hyde knocking the ball about well but with no cutting thrust to trouble the home defence.

The entire first half only produced three incidents of note; two of the goals and one of the yellow/red card debates. That came on 29mins when Julius Ndene was caught late and high by Shakeel Jones-Griffiths that resulted in the Blues centre half being stretchered off after a lengthy delay and the Leek bench questioning the referee’s decision having had full view of the challenge that had occurred right in front of them.

Billy Reeves came on to replace the injured Ndene and the Blues switched to four at the back and an extra man in midfield, but it seemed to make no measurable difference to the level of performance from the hosts.

Therefore, it was slightly against the run of play when Leek took the lead on 36mins. The goal came from a corner as a set piece looked the only way the Blues would score as they were doing nothing in open play. As Adam Porter swung the ball to the far post the Hyde goalkeeper Mackenzie Chapman came for it and completely misjudged its flight in the wind and got tangled up in a sea of fellow teammates trying to defend the cross. The ball reached Louis Potts who got something on it to direct it goalwards where it was blocked on the line. An almighty scramble inside the 6 yard box then ensued with further blocks by Hyde defenders until Lucas Weir was finally able to force the ball home from about a yard out.

The home sides joy was short lived, however, as Hyde cancelled out the opener just 4mins later. Alex Hurst had managed to break up a Tigers attack on the edge of the area and lay the ball back to Meadowcroft to clear but he only succeeded in finding Matt Fearnley who shot goalwards with the ball deflecting off the unfortunate Meadowcroft, sending goalkeeper Dino Visser the wrong way and ending up in the net.

LEEK TOWN 1 - HYDE UNITED 1 HT

The second half saw no great improvement in the quality of the game although both sides did manage to produce a shot on target. The difference was that Pott’s effort for Leek after 50mins was well struck but a comfortable save for Chapman whilst, for the Tigers, Fearnley produced the one bit of quality in the game a minute later as his 20 yarder curled away from the reaches of Visser and into the corner of the net for his second goal of the night on 51mins.

Not long afterwards Leek manager, Josh Brehaut, decided changes were needed and withdrew both Potts and Tunde Owolabi, who had not had the best of games and had received a yellow card for persistent niggly fouling despite being warned by the referee. They were replaced by Connor Heath and Hayden Campbell.

It initially made no difference, and the Blues frustrations grew with yellow cards shown to Reeves and Jack Stafford for offences that probably merited them but were relatively minor in comparison to that of Jones-Griffiths.

The Leek fans were also growing equally frustrated with the performance of their side and their mood was not helped when successive corner and free kick opportunities came and went with Weir’s deliveries going long and over everyone congregated in the area. With chances still not being created from open play, set pieces were Leek’s only opportunities to get back into the game, it seemed, and were being spurned.

Further bookings were exchanged with Tom Pratt shown a yellow for Hyde and Meadowcroft’s shirt pull earning the Leek defender his caution before the Blues finally made a set piece tell on 77mins.

A corner was earned by a good run down the right channel by Heath, latching onto Liam Buckleys ball down the line, with the Hyde defence putting his low cross behind. This time Weirs delivery to the far post was better where Heath met it with a powerful header into the net for the equaliser.

It meant for an interesting last 10mins to see which side, if any, could go on and win it. It felt like the momentum was with the Blues although Meadowcroft did extremely well to come across and deny Jordan Scanlon who looked as though he had a clear run on goal after initially breaking the Leek back line.

Fearnley was rightly shown a yellow card on 80mins for a lunging sliding challenge on Buckley that could have caused damage had Buckley not jumped out of the way before a big moment of controversy arrived on 84mins.

A Leek conterattack saw Campbell pick up the ball in space and thread a lovely weighted pass into the path of Heath. He managed to touch the ball past the last defender, ex-Leek Player Taylor McMahon, who caught and tripped the striker with his challenge to prevent him from running on with the ball. It was surely a denial of a goalscoring opportunity, and a red card offence, but to the surprise of most watching the referee only showed McMahon a yellow and then subsequently booked Heath for questioning the decision.

The resultant free kick came to nothing and with neither side able to create anything of note in the time remaining the game finished level with each side picking up a deserved point for their efforts/ Leek, however, will always wonder whether things may have turned out differently had either one, or both, of the contentious yellow cards been a red.

LEEK TOWN 2 - HYDE UNITED 2 FT

The Blues now take the road for a couple of weeks with the first trip away to big spending Hednesford Town on Saturday 24 January. The management team will be looking to bring further numbers to the squad with Julius Ndene being another loss to injury.

MATCH REPORT BY WINNERS LAD

Match Photogallery courtesy of Jim Booth HERE