Lancaster City 0-0 Stafford Rangers

After just five minutes, Simon Wills went down with a head injury, causing a stoppage in play, although he was able to continue.

However, 12 minutes later the Dolly Blues were forced to make an early change when the injured Rob Henry was replaced by Lewis Fensome.

There was very little to separate the two sides in the opening exchanges, and it wasn’t until the 37th minute when the Dolly Blues had the first real opportunity.

Rob Wilson’s cross was punched away by Stafford keeper Adam Whitehouse and the ball fell to Ryan Winder, but the City man failed to hit the target, his shot going over the bar.

Stafford were then reduced to ten men before half time when Andy Haworth appeared to kick out at City captain Wills and was shown a straight red card.

The second half was just as tight as the first, and it was City who went closest to opening the scoring on the hour mark when a corner was whipped in but the cross just evaded Steve Williams who was arriving at the back post.

Winder then had the best chance of the game with 20 minutes to go when he was played in and took the ball around keeper Whitehouse, but after running out of room he was only able to hit the side netting.

The Dolly Blues had another great chance five minutes later when Cole Lonsdale whipped in a fantastic cross from the left but Tom Kilifin’s header at the back post was nodded wide after a mix-up between the keeper and the defence. Manager Mark Fell rang the changes, bringing on Charlie Bailey and Reece Webb-Foster, who replaced Craig Stanley and Charlie Russell, as City went looking to grab a late winner.

Kilifin had the last chance of the game in the 85th minute when a cross came in from the right hand side, but his header was well saved by Whitehouse to keep the scores level.