Grantham Town draw with Cleethorpes in the Northern Premier League East Division

The managerial disruption at Grantham only positively affected the team performance against Cleethorpes as Paul Rawden made some positional changes and saw his side work their way to a draw against Cleethorpes Town.

Restored to the dugout for Saturday's match following the departure of Steve Kirkman, Rawden explained the changes he made to ensure a 2-2 draw in the Northern Premier League East Division match, writes Graham Cowell.

He said: "It was about getting the right people playing in the right places.

"We worked incredibly hard out there. We showed we care and that it does matter.

"We said we needed to be more attack minded and play with a different mentality. The early goal helped, but overall, the lads were superb."

The game could not have got off to a better start for the Gingerbreads.

In the second minute, Cleethorpes won a corner that Grantham defended well. Sam Muggleton cleared to Harry Olivant who turned his man on the touchline and raced away from inside his own half.

The Cleethorpes defence couldn't catch him and he slid his shot across goalkeeper James McKeown into the corner of the net.

Olivant tested the visitors' goalkeeper again two minutes later. A quick ball to the forward allowed him to get a low shot away that McKeown saved.

The Gingerbreads were pressing their opponents hard but were undone on their left after 11 minutes as a low cross from William Annan was bundled home from a yard out by skipper Alex Flett.

Grantham competed well and won most of the challenges on the back line. However, a moment of hesitancy after a quarter of an hour almost let Cleethorpes in again.

A long clearance from McKeown was allowed to bounce twice deep in the Grantham half. A poor clearance fell to Brody Robertson who fired a shot in from distance, thankfully for the Gingerbreads, Curtis Hall was well positioned to gather the shot.

The Gingerbreads re-took the lead midway through the first half.

Luke Hinsley spread the ball wide to Rodrigo Goncalves. From tight to the touchline, Goncalves looped a shot over McKeown into the far corner of the net.

It was almost three for Grantham a few minutes later. George Herbert and Elliott Walker combined on the right-hand side. Walker’s cross curled behind the Cleethorpes defence, but agonisingly in front of Olivant’s toe.

The pace of the Cleethorpes front-line was too much for Grantham after half-an-hour as Curtis Bateson grabbed a second equaliser.

Annan played a through ball for Bateson who ran away from the Grantham defence and drove a low shot across Hall to make it two goals each.

Both sides had late chances in the first half.

Bateson turned Muggleton inside the Grantham penalty area and went to ground, but referee Mr Parke waved away the penalty claims.

Muggleton was then involved at the other end, delivering a trademark long throw that fell to Hinsley at the far post, but his effort was deflected over the top.

A solid start to the second half set the tone for the second 45 minutes.

Cleethorpes passed the ball around confidently but could not break through a Grantham back line well marshalled by Gregg Smith playing at the opposite end of the pitch to usual.

Curtis Morrison had an early effort blocked for the Gingerbreads while a snap-shot from Bateson was easily taken by Hall.

The final ball for Cleethorpes let down any approach play as the Gingerbreads kept them at bay with no alarms for a long time.

Former Gingerbread AJ Adelekan was the most potent threat for the visitors when he ran from deep in the 53rd minute. Unchallenged by the Grantham midfield, he let fly from 20 yards out, but Smith blocked the shot.

Bateson again made a shooting chance that Hall was behind all the way midway through the half.

At the other end, the Gingerbreads buzzed around inside the Cleethorpes penalty area with Morrison, Tye Simpson and Goncalves all having chances to fire at goal, but none of them could get a shot away.

Adelekan went close again after 69 minutes. Another long run from defence went unchallenged. He got his shot on target this time, but again Hall was in the right place to take the effort comfortably.

Grantham showed solid organisation for the rest of the half, denying the visitors a sight at goal.

The closest they came was inside the last 10 minutes when Annan hit a first-time effort from the edge of the Grantham penalty area but lifted his shot over the crossbar.

Walker curled a free kick just wide of the post for Grantham and Bateson again shot over the top of the target as the Gingerbreads recorded a deserved point.