Against one of the pre-season favourites to win promotion Marlow ground out a deserved point in a game of few chances at either end although the home side looked the more likely to break the deadlock over the course of the game.
A pleasant surprise for Marlow was the appearance of Alex Salmon following his just a week earlier in the victory over Molesey and this allowed manager Mark Bartley to name an unchanged starting line-up with the only change to the squad being the inclusion of Kelvin Bossman on the bench.
We had to wait until the 17th minute for the first glimpse of a possibility of any sort of threat and this came at the Marlow end when a back pass from Salmon fell a little short and keeper Simon Grant's hurried attempted clearance cannoned off the legs of Billy Dunn but nowhere near to the Marlow goal.
Any sort of response from the visitors had top wait another 11 minutes and this was a first-time volley from Tristan Campbell following a cross into the home box but although well-hit it was always going wide and caused them no undue concern.
The comment was made at the interval that the game had 0-0 written all over it - and so it proved, although a near miss from Dominic-Morgan-Griffiths was just wide following a cross from Danny Bassett and an excellent save from Grant in the 75th minute followed by a mishit from Dunn prove3d to be the nearest to a goal that was seen during the proceedings.
# | Team | Pl | Pts |
1. | Hayes & Yeading United | 26 | 64 |
2. | Bracknell Town | 25 | 50 |
3. | Marlow | 25 | 49 |
4. | Westfield | 26 | 47 |
5. | Cheshunt | 26 | 47 |
6. | Ware | 27 | 44 |
7. | Tooting & Mitcham United | 26 | 43 |