Armstrong Hails His Battling Side's Performance

Spartans' manager Alun Armstrong was pleased with his side's 2-2 draw with Buxton in Derbyshire on Saturday.

"It was a difficult game but it was a good point in the end," he said.

"Considering the state of the pitch and us going two goals down and defending poorly for both of their goals you have to give the lads credit for coming back the way they did. Once we got one goal back I thought we could go on to win the game and, in the end, we were unfortunate not to nick it.

"We had some great passages of play but the final ball was letting us down and, I could say, the final bobble was letting us down too! But you can't fault our application and a point was probably about right.

"For their first goal I didn't think Jordan [Watson] fouled their player for the free-kick and for the second we were far too deep. So, we had a chat at half time and I explained a few things and you could see the difference in the second half. We played a lot higher and the slope probably helped too!

"Nipa's [Daniel Maguire] goal changed it for us just before the break and after that they couldn't live with us at times and defensively I have to give the lads credit too. We had to rearrange through injury and with losing Buddle and Pell I didn't want to risk Ryan Hutchison in case he got injured too so Jordan Watson filled in brilliantly at centre-back, where I know he can play, and it was great to see Michael Liddle back on the pitch and I think he did really well too.

"At the end of the day I was chuffed to bits with the lads and now we make sure we can take it on to to Saturday's game against Skelmersdale."