Heather St John’s 1-1 Hinckley AFC

A third consecutive draw between Heather St John’s and Hinckley AFC saw the two Midland League First Division rivals start their 2015-16 pre-season campaign on level terms.

Almost a year to the day since the last pre-season meeting between the two sides, this time around it was more about fine tuning than building an entirely new squad for Carl Abbott’s second year AFC side.

Hinckley started the brighter, and went close early on as Dom Smith’s header and Luke Richards’ chip both going wide of goal.

But as the first half wore on, Heather began to gain a foothold on the game, and took the lead just after the half hour mark. Avun Jephcott’s challenge on Joe Obi was deemed to be inside the box, and Nathan Grant converted the spot kick.

The second half was a disjointed affair in comparison; and with both sides making changes the game was regularly disrupted and neither side could gain the ascendancy.

Heather should have doubled their lead midway through the half, blazing a guilt edged chance over the bar from inside the six yard box.

There were just two minutes remaining when Hinckley grabbed their equaliser, through Jack Jepson’s deflected shot which looped beyond the helpless Heather ‘keeper.

Overall, though, the draw was a fair result as both sides begin to shape their eventual starting line ups in the Midland League First Division this season.