After five games on the road, Rusthall returned to The Jockey Farm Stadium in style against a Phoenix side which earlier this month had knocked them out of the FA Cup.

The point that was gained last night could easily have been three given the dominant nature of the performance and the chances which were created by the home side.

From the off, the Rustics showed that they were up for this one. Louis Anderson came in at centre half replacing Calvin Gitiba, Tommy Lawrence came in to the middle of the park, and up front, Conor Johnson got the nod and immediately set to work hassling and hurrying the Phoenix defenders.

Reuel Powell-Downey was lively on the left-hand side and Luke Miller offered a constant threat down the right, backed up by Abdullah Khalil. James White put his stamp on the game in the opening minutes - he won everything in the air all night and didn’t give Luke Leppard and Tashi-Jay Kwayie a sniff of goal.

Rusthall took the lead on 21 minutes and were good value for it. Luke Miller recycled the ball on the edge of the area and played the ball into Jack Smith who controlled it and looked up. Spotting Dwan Archer sprinting towards goal, he played a perfect through ball which split the floundering defence. Archer took the ball in his stride as Andy Walker bore down upon him - his finish was unerring and the ball sneaked into the bottom corner. Phoenix didn’t react well to going a goal down - the anger and negativity on display from the technical area seemed to spread to the pitch while Rusthall maintained control of the game with good passing and sound decision making. Conor Johnson went close at the end of the half - he engineered space to get a shot away which was headed for the top corner before being deflected onto the bar.

The second half saw the introduction of Ash Sheppard in place of Dwan Archer and he immediately began to run the show, initially from the ten role before dropping deeper. Phoenix were aggrieved to not win a penalty following a challenge in the box but Tommy Taylor remained untroubled.

Conor Johnson did brilliantly to wriggle away from the attention of challenges from the big centre halves but his resulting shot went wide. Phoenix equalised on 72 minutes - following a hopeful cross into the box, the ball was bundled across the line from close range. It was a poor goal to concede and doubly disappointing given Phoenix struggled to create anything else given the good work from the Rusthall defence - the one time they did get in, Tommy Taylor was straight out to block with his body - impressive, given the fact he’d had little to do all game. Rory Salter and Addo Amankwah began to dominate down the left and it was the home side who looked much more likely to go and win the game.

In the last five minutes, there were good chances to snatch the win. First, Ash Sheppard found space to get a shot away which Walker did well to tip over the bar. With almost the last kick of the game, Louie Clarke was played in by Ash Sheppard and found himself one-on-one with Walker. A slightly heavy touch meant his shot was rushed and the ball was smothered, the chance gone. Ultimately, a draw felt like a disappointment but any points are important in this league and there is no doubt Phoenix will be among the stronger sides this year.

Rusthall find themselves eighth in the league on 11 points and the chance to move up the table with a busy October ahead, beginning on Saturday away at Kennington.

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