The dichotomy of South 3rds' home and away form continued as we, without a single point all campaign on our own turf, extended our unbeaten run on our travels to four matches. Those four games have brought two wins and two draws, but in this case a draw felt more like two points dropped than a point gained.

If the Opta Indexs did hockey-specific stats (and bothered going down to our level) it is a cast iron certainty that we would have had a significant lead in all the positive categories; possession, territory, shots, shots on target, circle penetrations, short corners won, passes attempted and passes completed. Saints probably had the edge on tackles and saves made. However, those Opta numbers are all so much folderol, as only one stat actually matters and in the end that one showed parity.

We showed our intent for the game from the opening push-back as Jan, Ali, Nick and Dave worked the ball around in simple short passes down the left which resulted in a shooting opportunity created before the home side had even had a touch on the ball. This was indicative, as the opening ten minutes was played more or less entirely in the Saints half with a number of half chances being created.

As the half worn on the hosts edged themselves upfield a little, which meant that when we turned the ball over there was space to attack into rather than congestion. Our best opportunity of the half came from this route as a tackle won on halfway produced a four-on-two overload. The chance was worked to Nick in the left channel, but the Saints' keeper was quickly off his line to close down the angle and save the shot.

It felt like a goal was imminent and indeed that was the case, but completely against the run of play it went against us. A rare counter-attack up the right side saw the ball fed into the left winger, posted up on the top of the circle. He felt his marker over commit to his strong side, so turned reverse and went for accuracy rather than power with a clipped reverse stick sweep into the bottom corner. Rob Barton, absent injured from this match between his current and former clubs, would surely have nodded in appreciation of his sort of a goal.

Going behind in such an undeserving manner seemed to knock the wind out of our sails, with the rest of the opening half becoming rather scrappy and devoid of goalmouth action at either end. Half-time offered a chance to assess and add positivity, and we came out in the second half much like we had in the first, pressing the Saints back and creating opportunities.

Many of these fell to Dave, who was giving the home defence all sorts of trouble with his movement. He looked certain to score when taking Jan’s pass in, neatly putting the ball under the stick of his marker and lining up a shot from just five yards out. However, the home keeper did very well to block, and even better to block the rebound after the ball had come straight back to Dave.

But that was a temporary reprieve, as we finally got the equaliser our play had merited. It came from a long corner on the right, which was worked around the defence to Nick, who fed it in to Dave in the left channel. Dave’s receive and pivot earned him the space to wind up, and his shot was a whipcrack into the bottom near corner.

Being level sent belief surging through the team and twice in the next ten minutes we would be an inch away from adding the winner. First Dave pounced on a loose ball in the circle to flick goalwards. His shot beat everyone, but came back off the post. Then a neat move saw Paul pull high and wide right in the circle, JT pick him out, Paul play the right pass in squaring across the face of goal but not quite within reach of either Rasmus or Ali chasing in. Rasmus came the closest to converting, the ball passing fractionally beyond his diving reverse stick attempt to deflect in.

The game got really stretched in the last ten minutes as we threw bodies forward, and that meant there were holes in our backline for the first time all game. The Saints had a couple of opportunities themselves to nick it, with Shahbaz needing to be alert to one shot from the left channel (I believe the only save he made in the match), and a Saint coming as close as Rasmus had to a diving reverse-stick deflection.

The final whistle brought mixed emotions. Not losing a match in this dog of a season is generally worth smiling about, but a number of the team understandably felt this was one that had got away. Personally I tended towards the former view, a good performance and a slightly unlucky return of just one point. Now to get something at home next week against [checks fixture list] unbeaten league leaders Spalding. Ah. Well, hey, the unexpected can sometimes happen.