It was the first time in three visits to the New Buck's Head that the Reds had avoided defeat, although they are still to register a goal against Telford, so this has to be regarded as a good result for the travelling faithful.

Alfreton had to rely on Terry Fearns, the man who had scored freely against them in the past while wearing a Droylsden shirt, to miss an eighth-minute penalty though – otherwise Law's tactics were carried out to the letter.

The spot-kick stemmed from Paul Ellender's hand-ball virtually on the halfway line – Naylor took the free-kick and Fearns, Anton Brown and Simon Marples all converged with the last-named adjudged by the referee to have handled.

Fearns dragged the penalty a foot wide of Tom Evans' right-hand post and it was back to basics, although Alfreton did enjoy an attacking spell in the wake of Telford's failure to capitalise, forcing a brace of corners in quick response.

Good approach work by Ben Muirhead and Tom Curtis led to Kris Bowler chasing the ball to the byline in the 14th minute, with Josh Law launching himself at the cross but just failing to make contact.

In a rare Reds attack home keeper Young had to scamper out as Jordan Hall almost succeeded in playing Muirhead through in the 59th minute.

Then in the 70th minute Evans produced a point-blank save to deny Adams.

Alfreton: Evans; Marples, Brown, Ellender, McIntosh, Curtis, Law, Hall (Mayman 69), Clayton (Fortune-West 82), Muirhead, Bowler. Other subs: Butler, Cusworth, Davidson.

Attendance: 2,026