TINTWISTLE 1, WALSHAW 1 Manchester Premier League: IT was a case of two points dropped for title-chasing Walshaw on Saturday as they were made to settle for a draw by a stubborn Tintwistle outfit.

The Sycamore Road outfit made two changes, bringing in former Ramsbottom United striker Russell Brierley and Manifold in attack.

The game began with Tintwistle trying to impose their physical style on the early stages with flying challenges going in left, right and centre - a few yellow cards wouldn't have gone amiss but the referee elected to keep them in his pocket.

Walshaw were seeing far more of the ball with Brierley winning the aerial battle.

The biggest hindrance to the Walshaw team was the pitch, which caused untold problems to their passing game.

On 25 minutes, Sharples was upended just outside the box. The free kick was flighted into the box and, as the keeper came, Mark Stewart nodded it over him.

With the ball rolling towards the net, Brierley rushed in to finish the job only for the referee to give offside against Sharples - a very strange decision.

During the rest of the half, Walshaw bossed the play, with Mike Wilkinson coming closest; but he screwed his shot wide when one-on-one with the keeper.

The message was simple at the break - keep probing and the chances will come.

Again, the game followed a similar pattern with the home side limited to sporadic attacks and Walshaw tried in vain to break a stubborn rearguard action.

On 65 minutes, the home side took a shock lead when a rare foray into the Walshaw half exposed a hole in the midfied and the forward exploited it to the full, firing home from 20-yards.

Within two minutes, Brierley had the ball in the net again only for the ref to rule it out again for an alleged push by Sharples.

Walshaw laid siege to the home side's goal and got their just reward when a free kick was awarded just outside the box.

Stewart stuck it and as it crashed back off the underside of the bar, Brierley was on hand to level the match.

With time running out, Brierley had another great header saved by the keeper and Goodall lashed a shot wide.

On Saturday, Walshaw entertain West Didbury, 2.30pm kick off.