ROSS Speight has told his Middlewich Town players not to be too downhearted after they let slip a two-goal lead in midweek.

Daten recovered to earn a share of the spoils from a draw in a Cheshire League One encounter at Seddon Street on Wednesday.

“We’ll need to be more clinical,” said the Witches’ co-manager.

“However I’m really pleased with how we played for the first hour or so; we controlled the game, and not we have to learn from a couple of small errors.”

A trip to Mersey Valley, who occupy top spot in the standings after winning two of their first three matches, follows on Saturday.

It’s a fixture Town won back in April, when Michael Whitehead and substitute Chris Lunn were on target in a 2-0 win.

Middlewich Town 2-2 Daten

MIDDLEWICH Town could not protect a two-goal lead as they drew a second successive home game on Wednesday night.

Sam O’Sullivan put the Witches in front after half an hour when he converted a penalty after Jamie Petrie had been fouled inside the box.

The home team doubled their lead after the interval when Rory Gorton, a summer recruit from league rivals Egerton, diverted Petrie’s cross past the visitors’ goalkeeper at the near post.

Striker Sam Wakefield might have made it 3-0, Petrie too, before Daten – with former Town assistant manager Paul Anderson at the helm – started a fight-back.

They halved the deficit when Dale Jennings’ cross was diverted into his own goal by Jamie Garner.

The Warrington outfit then secured a point their persistence deserved when Chris Lawlor’s header at a corner found its way past Middlewich custodian Charles Masters.

Speight added: “Daten are due some credit; they never stopped working, and forced their way back into the game.”