Survival remains the priority as Hebburn Town battle to Leek draw

Daniel Moore stressed Hebburn Town’s main focus is preserving their Northern Premier League Premier Division status after they battled to a point in their long trip to Leek Town.

The Hornets travelled to Harrison Park on the back of what was an impressive 4-2 win at title challengers Worksop Town just seven days earlier and knew a win against Leek could have saw them leapfrog the Tigers into second place in the table. However, a win was far from Hebburn minds when a below-par first-half performance was punished by their hosts as they took firm control of the game.

The breakthrough arrived ten minutes before half-time as Lucas Weir beat the helpless Kieran Hunter from close range before Tyreece Onyeka doubled the advantage just 90 seconds later to leave Moore’s men facing a major challenge to battle back into the game. Substitute Bailey Adamson laid the foundations for the comeback when he headed home from an Olly Martin cross before the latter went from goal creator to goalscorer with a powerful finish six minutes from time to secure a point for his side.

The draw means Hebburn have now lost just four of their first 15 games as a Northern Premier League Premier Division club and remain in third place in the table - but Moore has insisted survival remains their main priority as a promising season continues.

He told The Gazette: “It’s a long way to go on the back of Macclesfield and Worksop, when you look at those three games, we would have taken four points from those, no matter how we got them. We just don’t want to get beat and being two down away from home, we showed what we can do when we play how we can play in the second-half. It shows the mentality in the dressing room and we are delighted with the lads. Over the three games, at Macclesfield we were really good and at Worksop we were really good, then on Saturday, we were really good for the second-half. The priority is to stay into the league and it remains that way so it’s another point towards reaching that total we need.”

The Hornets now have a free midweek before preparing for the first of a trio of home games as FC United of Manchester are the visitors to South Tyneside next weekend.