Dereham Town lost their 100pc home record in Ryman League North yesterday after being held to a draw by a determined Soham Town Rangers side at Aldiss Park.
After a spell of early pressure the hosts opened the scoring after 15 minutes when Craig Bussens latched on to a diagonal clearance before turning well and firing past Soham keeper Joe Templeman with a powerful finish.
Dereham pressed for a second but Soham defended well and just before half-time Andy Palmer turned past Harry Barker, to leave Andrew Wilton with no chance as he pulled his side level.
Both sides matched each other well in the second half, with defences working hard to limit the opposition attacks.
Despite the dropped points Magpies manager Matt Henman was pleased with his side's display.
'Our performance level today was a lot more consistent than in our recent away matches and that's really pleasing for me and something we will look to carry forward,' said Henman.
'We worked really hard to get our noses in front, then it was frustrating to concede such a sloppy goal, especially with it coming just before half-time. That's never a good time to concede as if we had gone with a lead at the break I think we could have gone on and added to it.
'I didn't think we did much wrong in the first half, we created some good chances and limited them from playing, which was really pleasing. However, in the second half I thought both teams cancelled each other out and it was frustrating that we couldn't come away with all three points.'
Dereham: Wilton, Hawkins, Barker (Ward 68), Hockley, Howard, Sommerfield, Bussens, Smith (Bailey 81), Tuttle, Roberts (Kay 65), Hilliard. Subs: Eastoe-Smith, Mason.
Soham: Templeman, Lukue, Ofori-Gyasi, Asensi, Gent, Torres, Sharman, Hall, Palmer (Brown 78), Stanley, Abbs (Prada 48). Subs: Minns.
Referee: Mr. J. Turner.
Att: 155.
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