Southport 0 Brackley Town 0

Several people predicted a 0-0 draw ahead of the game with the first and second sides with the most clean sheets facing each other and so it proved as the game ended in stalemate.

It won’t go down as a classic as both sides cancelled each other out and in the end neither side deserved to win or lose with chances few and far between.

Southport had the better of the first half and could have grabbed the lead when Jordan Archer just failed to get on the end of a Dylan Vassallo cross and that was as close as the home side came to scoring.

It was a similar story for the first 15 minutes of the second period but the game changed on 60 minutes when Brackley had a player sent off for pulling back the impressive Tyler Walton when he was through on goal. A decision greeted with much dismay by the vocal Brackley bench who seemed intent on having a go at the referee from minute 1 to minute 95.

Brackley were the better team when reduced to 10 and Ndlovu had two great chances to put them ahead but was foiled firstly by a fine Cam Mason save then a wayward finish.

The visitors did have the ball in the net but it was disallowed after a push in the box on Jack Doyle.

The game was held up briefly following a medical emergency in the crowd but was soon underway again and we hope the person concerned is well.

Southport did have a brief flurry in added time going close twice from long throws but the game petered out and as seemed likely very early on it ended 0-0.

Southport will be happy to take the point against a very solid Brackley side and maintain their place in the play off zone.

Following the final whistle a member of the Brackley bench was also shown a red card for confronting the referee in an aggressive manner and given what we witnessed on the bench for 90 minutes, it was no surprise!