Newmarket Town battle back to draw 2-2 with Haringey Borough to remain above Isthmian League North Division relegation zone

Newmarket Town manager Michael Shinn felt that Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Haringey Borough ‘summed up’ his side’s season in the Isthmian League North Division.

With just 17 minutes of the contest gone at the Tristel Global Stadium, the live league table showed that the Jockeys had slipped back into the relegation zone at the expense of their visitors, who had opened up a two-goal advantage.

However, Jacob Mingay’s calm finish from Ally Conway’s perfectly-weighted pass gave Newmarket hope going into the break and their pressure eventually told nine minutes from time. Conway was again the provider, nodding the ball down for substitute Stan Leech to lash in the equaliser.

And it was Newmarket that looked the more likely of the two teams to snatch a late winner, but despite the dismissal of Haringey’s Michael O’Donoghue for dissent, the spoils were shared.

“That basically summed up our season. Some poor defending, giving away terrible goals and then dominating games, creating chances and making it exciting, attacking football,” said Shinn.

“But ultimately I said to the boys before the game how important it was that we stayed above that line, whether it was a win or a draw.

“Don’t get me wrong, a win would have been lovely but what’s most important is that we are still above the line.”

Victory would have moved Newmarket a healthy five points above the bottom four with six matches remaining.

As it is, the gap to the danger zone is a more precarious two points, but Shinn is backing his players to keep their heads above water at the end of what is the club’s first ever campaign at Step 4.

He added: “It’s difficult because when you’ve had a season where you don’t win many games, it’s easy for belief to drop. It has dropped in certain games but I trust the group to do what’s needed.

“You can see they’re working extremely hard for each other. We’re out of it (the bottom four) but there was long periods of the season where we were in it. We’ve done ever so well to get ourselves into a position where it’s in our hands – now we’ve got to get the job done.”

Next weekend Newmarket travel to face a bottom-of-the-table Ipswich Wanderers side who could be relegated if they were to lose and other results went against them.

It has been a tough season for Wanderers, who have won just four of their 36 fixtures to date.

However, Shinn is not expecting anything other than a challenging afternoon at Humber Doucy Lane.

“We’re in a similar period of the season to last year, albeit we were near the top of the table then. But every game is getting bigger and bigger and the further we get down the line it will keep going that way until we’re hopefully mathematically safe,” he said.

“Ipswich Wanderers aren’t going to want to do us any favours. If I was in their position I’d want to take as many teams down with us as possible. I’ve been in dressing rooms where that’s been the conversation – if we can’t get in the play-offs then these aren’t getting in there and it will be the same down the bottom – a let’s make sure they come down with us mentality.

“When Michael Brothers (manager) went in there (last November) he had to start again and obviously that’s going to take a bit of time, but they beat Maldon and Brightlingsea recently and they’re great results.

“It’s an interesting point in the season because sometimes you come up against teams that aren’t really playing for anything and that can be difficult.

“But they’ve got some good players that can hurt you. It was a tight game here and it will be a tight game there – mistakes and fine margins will be what separates it.”

With leading goalscorer Josh Lee forced off during the first half against Haringey after a collision with visiting goalkeeper Ashlee Jones, it could well be Leech that leads the Newmarket attack against Wanderers.

The forward has struggled with a hamstring injury in recent months, but Shinn is hopeful that his first goal since late November will give Leech a boost.

“Stan was excellent. He missed a lot of weeks with a hamstring injury and just before he got that he was really good and starting to hit form,” said the Newmarket boss.

“He understood how we played, we understood how he played and it was starting to click. Hopefully he’ll continue with that now and get a good run of going.”