Buxton 1 Stourbridge 1

In the end, a point apiece was a fair result from a dour, scrappy contest with few clear cut chances for either team.

Stourbridge welcomed back central defenders Stuart Pierpoint and Richard Sho-Silva, along with Brad Birch and Kayelden Brown. They were named in the starting eleven with the injured Liam Slade, Matt Dodd and Ethan Jones missing out and Josh Green dropping down to the bench with Dan Preston chosen to occupy the left-back berth

Unfortunately, just as seven days earlier, Gary Hackett's men found themselves trailing within the opening few minutes. The Derbyshire hosts opened the scoring from their first attack in the 4th minute with Liam Hardy able to turn the ball across the face of the six-yard box from the right-hand side of the area, close to the by-line and Niall Doran powered home a rising close range strike.

A midfield battle largely ensued for some time after that, although in the ten minutes leading up to the interval, the visitors began to ask more questions of the Bucks. The best interchange of passes in the half saw Brown presented with a great chance to level matters on 35 minutes, but he blazed over from 12 yards. Three minutes later a Tom Tonks throw-in from the left was punched away by keeper Jan Budtz towards the edge of the box where Brad Birch didn't quite catch his shot cleanly and his effort on goal was deflected by a defender for a corner. A minute before the break though, the Glassboys were back on level terms through a trademark Benbow special. Gould collected a ball and quickly sent his goal-kick downfield, where Brown flicked on to find Benbow just outside the left-hand side of the box and he worked the space to send a corking strike beyond Budtz into the far top corner.

The second period saw plenty of endeavour from both teams and the Glassboys enjoyed more of the ball without really looking threatening in open play. In the 51st minute Westlake ventured forward to drill a 25-yard shot over, while ten minutes later at the other end, Alistair Taylor slipped a pass into Joel Bembo-Leta as the Bucks defender supported the attack, but from the right-hand edge of the area he drove his shot over the bar. Buxton's talisman Liam Hardy limped off after 65 minutes and after that it looked the sort of game, where one moment of quality or a bad mistake was needed for either side to find a winner. It was Stourbridge who went closest in the 81st minute when a free-kick from Benbow on the left saw Sho-Silva get round the back, but from a tight angle, he could only find the side-netting with his header.

The draw sees the Glassboys remain 3rd and maintains a four-point gap between Stourbridge and Buxton in the play-off race, but results elsewhere have caused a concertinaing effect at the top of the table with just seven points now separating second place Nantwich and 9th place Grantham Town, while 10th place Workington are only three points further back and they have at least two games in hand on most of the teams above them.