Neil Gibson’s Wealdstone climbed out of the relegation zone with a valuable point against Solihull Moors, as the spoils shared against the play-off hopefuls.
In a captivating contest at Grosvenor Vale, an early strike from the Stones’ top scorer, Alex Reid, was cancelled out by the Moors’ Alex Whitmore on the stroke of half-time.
Wealdstone made the perfect start in the 4th minute, when Reid latched onto a defensive-splitting clearance from skipper Craig Eastmond, to coolly slot the ball home between the legs of Killian Barrett, and put his side ahead.
The Stones nearly doubled their advantage in the 13th minute; Sam Ashford’s shot from inside the area looked destined for the top corner, but Barrett responded with a superb reflex save to deny the striker.
Despite the Moors finding rhythm and edging themselves back into the match, hot-shot Reid spurned a chance to solidify the home side’s lead, firing narrowly wide after profiting from a defensive error.
Gibson’s men continued to pepper the visitors’ goal and nearly profited in the 31st minute when Eastmond struck a fierce effort on target, however Barrett responded with a vital save.
As the Stones looked like they were taking a well-deserved lead into the interval, Whitmore pounced in the box to head home captain James Osbourne’s corner and level proceedings.
The Stones returned for the second-half in the same attacking vein, with Harrison Sohna nearly notching Wealdstone’s second from the edge of the box, but the Moors defence produced a crucial block to preserve the scoreline.
With just over quarter of an hour remaining, Wealdstone came agonisingly close to snatching a winner when Enzio Boldewijn hit a superb long-range strike that smashed off of the post.
Reid also had another bite of the cherry in the 80th minute, but Barrett reacted with a fine save to deny the Wealdstone striker.
Down the opposing end, the Moors nearly grabbed a late winner in the 83rd minute, as talisman Conor Wilkinson’s powerful strike from range crashed off of the crossbar.
Despite 12 minutes of stoppage time, as injured referee Craig Hicks had to be replaced by Daniel England in the 49th minute, neither side were able to steal all three points at the death.
Wealdstone: Gunter; McAvoy; Cook; Mundle-Smith; Boldewijn; Eastmond (Kretzschmar 86); Cesay; Georgiou; Sohna; Ashford (Obiero 75); Reid.
Subs not used: Baptiste, Dyer, Mariappa, Clark.
Attendance: 1418