In the first half, both sides struggled to adapt to the heavy, wet surface in their Northern League Division One encounter.

Jonny Wightman saw a shot turned round for a corner, and from the resulting flag-kick, the ball fell for Richard Addison, but he was unable to connect.

On 20 minutes, Wightman had a header turned round for a corner, before Billingham created their first opportunity when John Alexander fired over the bar from close range.

The second half started with Shields on the attack, and they thought they had taken the lead as Paul Taylor fired the ball into the net, only to see the linesman raise his flag for offside.

A minute later Wightman and Taylor combined, only for the former to head the ball straight into the arms of the Billingham keeper.

Shields were beginning to gain some momentum, and Karl Jarvis had a shot blocked for a corner, before Taylor was denied by a goal-line clearance.

And on 75 minutes they took the lead through Marc Brocklehurst, who collected the ball in the centre of the field before beating his marker, rounding the keeper and firing home.

The advantage only lasted five minutes, however, as Billingham equalised through Danny Earl, who capitalised on a defensive mistake and fired past Andy Clark in the Shields goal.