Sleaford boss left satisfied with a point at Melton

​Sleaford made it two matches unbeaten as they drew 1-1 with Melton Town thanks to a Ben Ashall penalty.

The home side managed to open the scoring with 20 minutes to go through Luther Munakandafa’s close range finish.

Sleaford didn’t let the goal get to them, however, as they pushed on to try and find an equaliser to get back into the game.

With ten minutes to go, the referee pointed to the spot and awarded Sleaford a penalty after a defender was deemed to have handled the ball whilst marking Andy Whalen. Up stepped Ashall, who drilled it into the bottom left corner, with the goalkeeper unable to get a strong hand to it.

Despite the late momentum and pressure from Sleaford, they couldn’t do enough to secure three points as they left Leicestershire with a valuable point.

Evans said: “We’ll respect the point and I think it shows how far we’ve come as a group to come back from going behind see the game out in a way that’s really mature.

"We perhaps lacked that extra bit of quality in the box at times when it really mattered. Melton’s goal was really good in the way they worked the ball across the pitch and opened us up, which is something teams haven’t done much but fair play to them.

"We’re disappointed not to get three points but it’s a point away from home and two games unbeaten.

Next up for the Greens is a home tie with Gresley Rovers on Saturday, something of a six-pointer given Rovers are just two points behind Sleaford, who in turn are just four points outside the relegation zone.

Evans said: “Gresley thrashed Skegness 5-1 at the weekend so they’ll come into the game with us high on confidence, but we’ll be ready for it as we have been ready for this game for a while now and we know what we’ve got to do.”

After the Gresley game, Sleaford go to mid-table Newark & Sherwood United on April 19 before then hosting current fourth-placed side Boston Town on Easter Monday in the final game of the league season.