Lewis Littlechild earned the Reserves a creditable draw at Hinton on Saturday after they were forced to deal with last minute withdrawals and unavailability for the second week running.

So far this term, whenever Sean Ennis' men have been down to the bare bones, they have turned in their best performances and this away trip proved no different.

After a bright opening few minutes, Town found themselves behind after failing to deal with the home side's very first attack on four minutes.  A long clearance from the home defence went over Mark Shelley's head on the Baldock right and the pacey forward broke down the left before delivering a low cross for James Sooren, who tapped in completely unmarked.

Having conceded such a simple early goal, the visitors could have been forgiven for thinking it was going to be a long afternoon against highflyers Hinton who were aiming to go top of the table with victory, but Town stuck to their task and tried to play the game the right way, playing some neat football without really testing the Hinton goalkeeper.

However, Baldock equalised just before the half hour when the tenacious Lewis Littlechild forced a goal out of nothing.  A throw-in by Mongston on the Town left was helped on and as the keeper came to claim the looping ball, Littlechild beat him to it and as his looping header went goalwards he drove forward to force the ball over the line from a yard out.

For the remainder of the half, the visitors continued to play some attractive football, but once again the hosts were proving the more threatening in front of goal with the pace of Joelle-Leon Phillips causing the Town defence problems all afternoon.

After the break, it was end-to-end stuff with most of Town's opportunities coming from set pieces as Hinton's foul count increased by the minute.

As the half wore on though, Town began to look ragged and their tiring legs were starting to give Hinton hopes of victory, but poor finishing by Phillips in particular on more than one occasion kept the scores level, with other speculative efforts easily dealt with by Johnson in the Baldock goal.

Adam Furness very nearly stole the points against the odds for Town though when his stinging volley from 25 yards out blazed inches wide of the left upright.

All in all this was a very satisfying draw for Sean Ennis' side.  They certainly rode their luck at times, in the second period in particular, but the team ethic and hard working attitude earned Town a draw, which was the least their efforts deserved. 

Once again, there was plenty to be positive about and with a bit more firepower up front, they are easily capable of mixing it with the best in the division and to take four points from one of the frontrunners Hinton is very pleasing.

Reserves: Johnson, M.Shelley, Monahan, Matussa(Graham), Mongston, Bond, A.Furness, Rusbridge, Wooding-Aquart, Duigan, Littlechild