Despite having scored a remarkable twelve goals in the past two games, unavailability, injury and suspension forced Sandbach manager Declan Swan into some tinkering with his starting line-up as his squad made the trip up to Wallasey on a cold Saturday afternoon. Kieran O’Connell, Harry Cain, Lewis Barker and Joshua Klein-Davies were amongst the changes made by Swan as he hoped to win a seventh game in a row in the league.

O’Connell’s return to the starting line-up was cruelly cut short in the fourth minute when an collision with an Ashville player saw the defender land very awkwardly on his shoulder, and he had to be replaced by Louis Johnson.

The first real chance of the game fell to the hosts, when Ben Greenop fired over from a decent position in the 17th minute.

Sandbach had another injury scare when Cain was sent flying into the perimeter barrier, but the winger hardily got to his feet after some serious concern and dusted himself down to continue.

The biggest chance of the match came in the 34th minute, when a near-post effort from Klein-Davies was kept out by the combination of a superb Michael Dixon reaction save and a hooked clearance off the line.

Ashville had arguably their best scoring opportunity of the game on 63 minutes when Ben Coward found himself through on goal with just Eric Merner to beat, but the Sandbach goalkeeper spread himself well to keep out the shot with his knee.

Liam Fitzpatrick was the next player to almost score for Sandbach after Cain kept a deep cross alive, but the flicked header was just wide of the near post.

Sandbach peppered the Ashville goal in the final few minutes, but the home defence stood firm to ensure the points were shared at full-time.