Grantham Town draw with Sheffield FC on Non-League Day

Grantham earned a point in their battle against relegation after a goalless draw in front of the biggest crowd at the Meres for a few years.

Non-League Day attracted 1,022 fans to watch, many of them from local schools visited by the Gingerbreads in recent weeks.

They saw Grantham have the better of the possession against visiting Sheffield without showing a cutting edge inside the penalty area.

Head coach Louis Bland said: "We could look back on this in a few weeks as a good point, or a poor one.

"We played better with more confidence, but that final bounce or bit of luck didn't come our way.

"We now have a massive game this Saturday at home to Ossett and we need to take the positives from this game into that match and progress again."

It took a long while for either side to break down each other's defences.

Sheffield seemed comfortable to soak up pressure and hit on the break. When they did, they found a Gingerbreads side that defended in numbers, but at crucial times appeared to make challenges from the back foot, handing an advantage to the visitors.

It was the Gingerbreads pressure which began to tell first. Edward Hall in the visitors’ goal had to come twice to thwart home attacks.

After seven minutes, he took a cross that was heading for Sisa Tuntulwana, then claimed a dangerous long throw from Sam Muggleton.

Sheffield defended strongly to deny Curtis Morrison a clear shot and Edward Hall gathered his shot comfortably.

Rodrigo Goncalves had the best opening for Grantham on 18 minutes when he got just beyond his defender. However, Goncalves showed neither enough pace, nor strength, to hold off his man and couldn’t get a shot away from a good position.

Morrison looked a threat to the visitors and turned sharply after 21 minutes and shot from 25 yards out. Hall in the Sheffield goal had to move sharply to his left to make the save.

Tuntulwana delivered a good cross four minutes later that beat everyone in the Sheffield penalty area and came quickly to Ryan Rushen.

From the edge of the six-yard box, Rushen couldn't get the ball under control quickly enough and the chance was lost.

Just before the half hour mark, a good move on the Grantham right hand side opened up another chance for the Gingerbreads.

Sam Hooper worked his way down the flank and squared the ball across the Sheffield penalty area. It ran through to Brad Munns, but he could not keep his shot down and it flew well over the crossbar.

Having defended for most of the first 40 minutes, Sheffield suddenly sprang to life in the last few minutes of the half.

They forced four corners in quick succession that saw Grantham defending at times with all 11 players in their own penalty area.

From the second corner, a poor clearance dropped for Henry Mitchell on the edge of the Grantham penalty area. He drove in a shot from 18 yards out that brought a good save from Curtis Hall.

The second half largely followed a similar pattern. In the opening minutes, Tuntulwana played a good ball to Rushen who found Morrison. The Grantham player turned and tried to get off his shot, but good defending by the visitors blocked him off.

Sheffield had two chances in rare breaks in the Gingerbreads possession.

On 55 minutes, Luke Mangham opened up enough space to fire off a shot but didn’t stretch the Gingerbreads goalkeeper.

Just after the hour, another bit of resilient defending from the Grantham back line cleared the danger when Jerome Slew beat two challenges and delivered a cross to the edge of the Gingerbreads six-yard box. Confident defending cleared the danger.

The closest Grantham were to come to opening the scoring came with 15 minutes left.

Tuntulwana set Harry Olivant away down the left wing. He got to the by-line and hit a low cross towards the Sheffield near post that goalkeeper Edward Hall turned round for a corner.

When the flag kick was delivered, Muggleton rose for a clear header from six yards out, but his effort hit the crossbar and went over the top.

Again, Sheffield finished the half strongly. Mangham got the benefit of the referee’s decision when he appeared to flatten Muggleton challenging for the ball. The Sheffield striker was left with some space but could only find the side netting.

A minute later, when a long throw was not effectively cleared by the Gingerbreads defence, Sheffield substitute Benefit Ndlovu let fly from a distance but sliced his shot wide.

The visitors' last chance to snatch what would have been a heartbreaking goal as far as Grantham were concerned came in added time.

Another header from Mangham went over the top when he got on the end of a throw from Connor Cutts.

With no time left for either side, the Gingerbreads ended goalless for only the second time this season. They remain seven points adrift of safety with seven matches of the season remaining.