Six games and still unbeaten: City proved once again that they are a very difficult team to overturn. Judged by previous results alone, this match looked as if it would be a close one, and so it proved. Brackley, who started the day just a point behind the Lilywhites had suffered just one reverse, and that against the league’s form team, Farnborough.
 
Gary Roberts made just one change from Saturday’s line up, Matt Haniver’s dead leg ruling him out, Dave Theobald stepping in at the back.
 
The early exchanges suggested that the game might be full of both goals and incident. The usually reliable Zac Barrett in the City goal was almost caught out on three minutes when he palmed Jerome Anderson’s cross back into danger, to be saved by an alert defence who cleared the ball to safety.
 
Just one minute later, John Frendo was fouled, giving Adrian Cambridge the chance to have a crack at goal, his effort from the resulting free kick just skimming the bar.
 
It was the hosts who next threatened when on 19 minutes, Ben Mackie slipped the attentions of the City back four, making room for a perceptive cross that found Elliott Sandy in space no more than six yards out. To the frustration of the home fans and to the relief of the 70 plus City faithful, he somehow managed to slide the ball wide when scoring appeared to be easier.
 
But City also had their chances, first when Ashley Fuller’s stinging left-footer was blocked to safety on 21 minutes and 16 minutes later when the same player got around the back of the Brackley defence, picked out Frendo who slid the ball past keeper Richard Morris, only to see number 3 Jamie Gould clear his effort off the line.
 
The half ended with City looking relatively comfortable and certainly decent value for the draw.
 
It was the visitors who made the first positive inroads in the second half when on 50 minutes Cambridge’s free kick resulted in an an untidy scrimmage in the Brackley box, the ball eventually falling to Steve Gentle who managed to scoop it over from around three yards out. The same player found himself put in on goal on 58 minutes, but had his effort snuffed out by vigilant defending.
 
The home team briefly asserted themselves on 70 minutes when a double canon fell to Ben Mackey who made progress to 8 yards out before unleashing an effort that drew a fine save to his left from Barrett. In terms of meaningful goal action, that was it for the game. The substitution of Gentle for Pat Bexfield saw Neil Midgley form a lively pairing with Frendo up front, but neither could fashion a decent chance as both teams cancelled out one another.
 
The result leaves the Lilywhites fourth in the table and sharing with Chippenham and high-flying Farnborough, the only unbeaten record in the league. A lack of fire power in the last three games that have yielded just two goals might in some part be put down to the absence of the supplier of many the crosses, Scott Neilson. But even without the midfielder’s presence, City have done well to maintain their unbeaten streak and to have more than matched their last two opponents, who should be challenging at the end of the season.