An organised and disciplined defensive performance frustrated the hosts and brought back the first point for Grantham since the beginning of November.

“We worked very hard on the defensive side of our game in training as we have been too open in recent games.” Paul Rawden said. “We put into practice what we worked on and deserved the point. We tried to make sure we had a threat out wide, but everybody was disciplined and stuck to their jobs. If you do that, you get your rewards as we did today.”

Basford opened up with a quick attack down the Grantham right. A cross field ball found James Reid with a bit of space to get a shot off which Adnan Kanuric did well to turn round the post low to his right.

The game settled into a pattern of the home side passing the ball comfortably in front of the Grantham defensive set-up while the Gingerbreads closed their men down and looked to break quickly when they won the ball.

Basford did get through the Gingerbreads defence after 16 minutes when Kane Richards made space too easily, but Kanuric was again equal to his effort, saving comfortably.

Midway through the first half, the Gingerbreads had their best attacking period of the game. Craig Westcarr posed a number of problems for the Basford defence. After 24 minutes, he gathered a header from Rob Atkinson, turned well inside the Basford penalty area and got a shot away, but fired wide of the target.

Westcarr sent Remaye Campbell running in on goal a few minutes later, but the Basford defence eased Campbell off the ball before he could shoot. The Gingerbreads leading scorer then fired a free kick over the top of the Basford net from 25 yards out.

It was defensive duties again for the Grantham side as the half drew to a close with Basford pushing for an opening goal. 6 minutes before the break, Reid’s free kick was turned goalward by Stef Galinski. Connor Bartle blocked his effort for a corner from which the Gingerbreads blocked Dom Roma’s effort with Jack Thomas firing the loose ball over the top. A couple of minutes later, a deep cross to Thomas saw the striker screw is shot across goal.

The home side were sharp out of the blocks after half time; Ashley Worsfold was closed down by Kanuric, with Thomas only firing the loose ball at the Grantham goalkeeper. Reid delivered a good low cross that eluded everyone and Kanuric was again in the right place to deny Worsfold from Richards’ cross.

The Gingerbreads continued to frustrate Basford as although they found some space to play a patient game, when they began to look dangerous, Grantham were strong and got a foot or head in. Gradually Basford began to be more desperate and tried to force matters more with no success.

Midway through the half, Basford had a couple of good chances. On 67 minutes, Ryan Wilson’s cross found Worsfold unmarked, but he headed wide from a good position. The Gingerbreads went on the offensive and Westcarr and James Berrett had shots blocked before Basford broke. Charlie Ward put in a great tackle to stop them as they looked to exploit the space.

Grantham frustrated Basford for the rest of the half. As the game drew to a close, many fans thought Basford would nick a goal, or Grantham break and get one against the run of play. Neither happened, despite Basford doubling their efforts. A square ball for Worsfold gave him the chance to get a fierce shot off, but again, Kanuric was equal to the challenge.

In the third minute of injury time, Courey Grantham chased a clearance and got past the initial challenge from the Grantham defence. Good recovery work pushed him wide and he hit the side netting with the home side’s last chance of the game.