Former St Neots midfielder Harry Beckley started his first match for Town. Phil Cassidy returned after missing Saturday’s match due to family commitments. Jordan Orosz and Chief Boateng started on the bench. Adam Creaney missed out due to work commitments. Town would be keen to continue where they left off on Saturday, the hosts sat in third place but must have been smarting from Saturday’s heavy defeat at lowly Sleaford Town.

Another bitter cold evening with a wind blowing in Town’s favour in the first half. The match was given plenty of Twitter publicity by the attendance of Talksport’s Tony Incenzo with his 81k followers.

The match started 7 minutes late due to the referee getting stuck in traffic on the A14. Town had a couple of early free kicks however the wind took the ball over the players and out for a goal kick.

It was a good start from Town. They had a bulk of possession with Moussi instrumental in most things in the centre of the park.

A bad foul on Jack Beasley in the 15th minute. It was almost as late as the referee, however he decided just to talk to Rahal Parmar on this occasion.

The pitch was extremely muddy and was the worst pitch Town have played on this season. It made passing and movement difficult and the match was never going to be a classic on such an awful playing surface.

Another bad foul, this time by Jordan Nelson resulted in the first yellow card. It was another late and high challenge that totally poleaxed the Diamonds defender. After a long talking to, the referee this time showed the yellow card.

Town were on top for a majority of the first half however the Nirvana keeper was not seriously troubled.

Nirvana did start to come out of their shells in the last 10 minutes of the half. A couple of late free kicks again caught on the difficult wind and went out to safety.

HT: Nirvana 0 Daventry Town 0

Town went close in the 53rd minute when Chay Carter made a block at his near post. The ball ricocheted around the box but no Town player could get a decent enough strike on the ball and it was eventually cleared.

Jordan Orosz was introduced in place of Ben Browne. He was brought down shortly afterwards as he threatened to go through the Nirvana defence, this time by Luke Anderson. Another card was shown and when Fitzgerald again looked like breaking on goal, he was flattened by Harper, for a third Nirvana yellow card. Nelson walked a fine line by loudly demonstrating against any decision that went against him yet the officials decided to ignore his constant protests.

Cerga was rarely troubled in the Town goal, producing a couple of saves in the second half but otherwise the Town defence remained resolute throughout.

FT: Nirvana 0 Daventry Town 0

Both teams would probably have settled for a draw beforehand. The teams now face each other in the reverse fixture at Elderstubbs in just 10 days time.

Town travel to Leicestershire again this Saturday, this time to lowly Oadby Town whilst others around them in the table play each other.