Bridgwater Town 2

Cheddar 2

This game pitted probably the two best sides in the league, although the table would beg to differ, against each other and both put on an excellent display, despite the conditions underfoot.

Cheddar started well and took the game to their hosts, opening the scoring on 15 minutes when a cross from the left was dropped by the Bridgwater keeper and Dave Phillips popped up to score his ninth goal of the season from close range.

The Cheesemen continued to move forward, confident that their back four of King, Matthews, Whittaker and man of the match Tom Parsons would keep the Bridgwater attack at bay.

On the half-hour mark, Mike Edmonds somehow contrived to miss a gilt-edged chance with the ball sticking on the goal-line when everyone had turned away to celebrate the score.

However, he made up for this minutes later when he popped up to score Cheddar's second goal from close range.

The Cheesemen created several opportunities but were unable to add to their tally at the break.

This was probably the best half of football Cheddar had put in all season but, as manager Tim Richens reminded them, a team of Bridgwater's quality never lies down and they could expect a second-half onslaught.

These words were prophetic as Bridgwater brought on Howson, a regular scorer with the first team, and another substitute, and went to all-out attack mode.

Cheddar repelled the attacks, although the threat was always there, with Howson's clever running a new dimension for Parson and Whittaker to deal with. It was therefore a surprise when Howson's goal came from a corner when he lost his marker to head home from close range.

This spurred Bridgwater on to attack even more passionately, but Cheddar stood resilient and had their own threats on the break, with chances still being created.

From the best of these, Tom Manning was inches wide with a chip from 45 yards with the keeper well off his line. Eventually the Bridgwater pressure told as they equalised, albeit in a bizarre and unlikely way.

Cheddar cleared a ball from their own area, but the Bridgwater attacker had his head low and the referee decided that this was dangerous play by the Cheddar defender, despite the fact his foot was far from high.

Cheddar got the ultimate punishment as the free-kick was rolled to Neil Peek, who lashed it past a helpless Milligan from 12 yards.

Bridgwater sensed the game was there for the taking but, despite a couple of penalty appeals, they caused no real alarm to the Cheddar defence.

Despite having been two up, the Cheddar side were far from down-hearted as they had gone toe-to-toe with last year's champions and earned a point – something not many do at Fairfax Park.

This standard, if kept in the rest of their games, will see Cheddar right in the title shake-up at the end of the season.