In the shadows of Anfield, Darlaston Town made the long trip to high riding Lower Breck, taking home a valuable point down the M6, the visitors denied Lower Beck going top of the table becoming the first team to take a point on their home pitch.

With a well deserved reputation for their brand and style of football the free scoring home side made a bright start and were ahead within 5 minutes. A Sam Burns free kick from 22 yards finding Bishop's top left hand corner giving the keeper no chance. The opening 10 minutes saw the home side on top Alex Cherera causing havoc with several jinking runs down the left flank, fortunately for the visitors his finishing was a little wayward or keeper Bishop saved comfortably. Sam Burns and former Everton youngster Liam Morris also impressed early on as the visitors struggled to get a foothold in the game.

However, a couple of astute tactical changes, lessened the threat of Cherera and Burns as Darlaston started to pose a threat themselves. Harry Chesterton, Bailey Storey and James Rowland combining several times down the left to start to create openings for Callum Knowles. Callum Grogan and Tom Mitchell stood firm at the heart of the Breck defence, keeper Theo Roberts making a couple of comfortable saves.

As time passed, the quality of movement and passing from Breck was a delight to watch as was the work rate and quality of the visitors whose confidence and composure was growing with each passing minute. Whilst Breck had the better of the possession the game was becoming more evenly balanced, and it was no surprise when the Darlaston equaliser came on 35 minutes. Fine work down the left flank between Chesterton and Martin saw Martin's cross headed home by Knowles rising above the home defence to send his powerful header beyond keeper Roberts hight to his right.

The second half opened with half chances for both teams the best falling to Darlaston youngster Jimmy Richardson who broke clear of his marker before shooting powerfully into the side netting with keeper Roberts narrowing the target.

Cherera, Burns, Morris and Connor Millington continuing to impress as Breck forced the pace. However, they were met by a resolute and resilient Darlaston defence and midfield, peppered with teenagers and superbly marshalled by skipper Alex Foreshaw. It was not all one-way traffic as the visitors broke quickly and purposefully, Knowles causing plenty of problems for the Breck defence, with Jake Pearson and substitute Billy Corns always looking to get on the ball.

Clear chances were negligible as both sides were forced into long range shots or shots under pressure, both keepers rarely trouble,

With just 5 minutes left, Darlaston were reprieved, the linesman's flag denying the home side a late winner. Two minutes later it was the home side who were reprieved keeper Roberts thwarting Richardson in a one on one, his outstretched leg denying the youngster a dream moment.

After the game manager Dean Gill expressed his delight - "Firstly, what an outstanding group of people at Lower Breck. Gary (Moore- manager) his management team, players. club officials and supporters were first rate today; Gary was great to chat with and complimentary to us. His management and team were calm and professional. We have found in this Division that some managers and teams attempt to intimidate match officials by screaming for fouls and surrounding match officials. Not today. Lower Breck management and team were exemplary. They are the best footballing team and best group I have seen at this level of football.

Now to my own management team, players and supporters. Massive respect and kudos to my management team. They worked tirelessly over the weeks, doing their due diligence on Lower Breck. We knew they were a first-rate side with a potent strike force and top players. Between us we had to come up with a plan to nullify them but also create them problems and play our own game whenever we could. The plan they executed was near perfect. Of course, we didn't plan on going a goal down in 5 minutes and we had to tweak our tactics early to minimise the threat of their front three, but we did that and the players responded magnificently.

Now to my players. They are not daft. They read the fans group pages with predictions of 5, 6 and 7 goals defeats today. Whilst I pay absolutely no attention to their predictions, ten of my squad are 18 and spend a lot of time looking at this stuff. They rose above it and put in an unbelievable shift today. They came into the game as massive underdogs and left the ground with their heads held high. I am immensely proud of how they stuck to the game plan, their resilience under pressure, and the speed and quality of our breaks. Most of them have played only a handful of games in men’s football, and they are growing game by game, individually and as a group. There were several standout performances today, everyone at least an 8 out of 10.

Finally our supporters. A small but perfectly formed group. There was 20 or so on the coach and about a dozen who travelled independently, that's about 20% of our home support. Staggering for such a small club and the players and management are immensely grateful to everyone of them.

Today was a good day for everyone at Darlaston to be involved in non league football."