Spennymoor 4 Altrincham 4.

Spennymoor manager Jason Ainsley had mixed feelings when they were held to a 4-4 draw by Altrincham in a cracking game at the Brewery Field on Saturday.

Moors produced some good attacking football and scored some great goals, but they were sloppy in defence and conceded some poor goals, which meant that they had to come from behind on three occasions in the game just to salvage a point.

The result means that Moors are still without a league win this season, but on the other hand are undefeated in three matches against Chester, Darlington and promoted Altrincham.

“It was an unbelievable game,” he said. “To score four goals at home you would expect to win a game, but we didn’t do that. We scored a good goal early on, but then we stopped and they were the better side – they were a good passing side. You could see that they were going to score, which they did, and then we gave away a free kick when we shouldn’t have done, and they scored from it to go in the lead. Adam Boyes scored a great goal for us to equalise before half time.

“We read the riot act at half time and said about keeping the game tight, but we conceded another goal straight after. Shane Henry came on and made a big difference to us, leading to our equaliser.

“But then we gifted them another goal to put them back in the lead again. Fortunately, we managed to open them up again for the equaliser.

“This was our third league game of the season, and after a goalless draw last Saturday, we’ve had to come from behind five times in two games. We can’t keep doing that – I thought we’d eradicated our defensive errors when we had the goalless draw at Chester on the opening day.

“I thought we were very good going forward, we played some great football which was good to see, but we conceded some really poor goals which were avoidable. Every time we went forward we looked as if we were going to score, but on the other hand so did they.

“I was pleased with the character of the lads for coming back from a goal down - -we would maybe have folded in the past – but we can’t keep making life difficult for ourselves. We seem to score and then let other teams back into the game.

“Some of the players who were left out of the squad will be knocking on my door and wanting to play in our next game at Bradford PA on Tuesday.

“It’s crazy to think that we’re undefeated in three matches this season, but we haven’t won a game yet!”

There were chances at both ends before Moors took the lead on 11 minutes, when Rob Ramshaw and Glen Taylor combined superbly for Mark Anderson to fire left footed past the Altrincham keeper from the edge of the box for his second goal of the season.

But Alty were level on 21 minutes when Andrew White was left completely unmarked on the edge of the area to beat Moors keeper Jonathan Gould with a well hit shot.

Moors went behind on 33 minutes when Stephen Brogan conceded a free kick, which was floated in for James Jones to head past Gould, and they could have gone further behind if Gould hadn’t saved from John Johnston.

However, new signing Adam Boyes pulled them level with his first goal since his summer arrival, when Ramshaw played him through, and the former Bradford PA man coolly lobbed advancing keeper Tony Thompson.

Moors conceded the advantage again at the start of the second half. Altrincham started it better, and they went 3-2 up when Josh Hancock was left completely unmarked to head in a left wing cross.

It was nearly 4-2, but Brogan was in the right place to clear a header by Jordan Hulme off the line, and then Hulme raced through but fired over the top.

Moors needed a boost, and they got it from Shane Henry, who had replaced Andy Johnson just before the hour mark, when he pounced on a James Curtis lay off from a corner and fired past the keeper.

Moors then looked more likely to score, and in the space of a few minutes Glen Taylor, Anderson and Henry all missed good chances.

But Altrincham regained the lead again when Hancock was on hand to pounce on a loose ball after Gould had blocked Hulme’s effort.

However, just as he did on Tuesday night against Darlington, Taylor came to the rescue when he fired into the bottom corner.

Teams: Gould, Williams, Curtis, Thackray, Brogan, Anderson, Chandler, Ramshaw, Johnson (sub Henry 55), Boyes, Taylor.

Subs not used: Elliot, Foley, Hibbs, Hayes.

Attendance 698.