Barnton 2

Middlewich Town 2

IF Barnton retain their Mid-Cheshire League title, they won't be thanking Middlewich Town for any favours, having dropped five points against them this season.

Saturday's 2-2 draw was disappointing for Barnton as Town played most of the second half with 10 men and the last 10 minutes with nine.

Barnton dominated territorially in the first half but didn't create any clear chances and it was Town's Jason Jones who came closest to opening the scoring, as his header was saved by Derrick Fortune two minutes before the interval.

One minute after the break, however, Jones got the better of the keeper as he pounced on a loss of footing by the unlucky Paul Lambert and slotted in.

Barnton equalized on 52 minutes when Steve Davis was fouled and Adrian Brodigan deceived everybody as he drilled the resulting free-kick into the corner.

A minute later, though, Town had retaken the lead from the penalty spot. Lambert was ruled to have held an opponent back and Rob Corcoran scored.

As the game exploded into life, so did Ian Tier's temper. He became the first man to be sent off when he reacted angrily to a Barnton challenge a minute after his side had recaptured the lead.

Barnton were now able to lay siege to the Middlewich goal and this paid off nine minutes from time as John Lewis handled the ball on the line and duly received a red card.

From the resulting penalty, Richard Milne equalized, but the nine men held on for a point.

Barnton: Fortune, Starchievski, Fraser, Jones, Lambert (Astbury, 64 mins), Davis, Milne, Heywood, Murray, Brodigan, Tomlinson (Warburton, 77 mins).

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.