After arriving in the Northern Premier League Premier Division at opposite ends over the off-season, Warrington Town and Cleethorpes Town battled out a goalless draw on the opening day.
Neither side did anywhere near enough to win the game, with both only mustering a solitary shot on goal.
Yellows boss Paul Carden said: “It was a hard fought game against a side who have come up and like newly promoted sides do with that bounce and kept a lot of players together.
“It was always going to be a tough opening day, and it proved that.”
It was the antics of the referee that drew the most attention, twice stopping the game for a drinks break despite the temperature only being a modest 19 degrees celsius, and for another stoppage early in the game when a displaced corner flag couldn’t be put back sufficiently by both the linesman and a steward.
The corner flag incident was the only real thing to write home about in the first half as both sides struggled to get hold of the game, with perhaps Cleethorpes the only side to really have a spell of sustained attacking possession.
The Yellows did create the first half-chance, Kallan Murphy heading over the bar from a Liam Brazier cross from the left, having switched flanks with Dontai Gabidon.
Murphy was otherwise struggling to get any change out of James Blunden and Callum Foster at the heart of the Cleethorpes defence.
While the second half opened up a bit more, it was very bitty, with the referee’s whistle heard far too frequently. A flashpoint occurred on the hour, which saw Aaron Braithwaite and Jay Harris both booked for a square up, while Cleethorpes manager Craig Rouse also saw yellow.
The first shot on goal came on 66 minutes, Ollie Battersby down well to his left to push away a Harris shot, while another chance for the hosts saw substitute Enock Lusiama, one of 11 debutants that featured for them, shoot right across the face of goal.
The only time Cleethorpes tested 17-year-old ‘keeper Li-Bau Stowell, a loan arrival from Preston, was in the 81st minute when he was out quick to make himself big and deny Josh Walker from a narrow angle.
But the most decisive intervention came from Bohan Dixon, a last-ditch tackle in the final minute denying Connor O’Grady just as he went to pull the trigger from six yards out.
Warrington Town: Stowell, Melhado, Bourne, Butler, Doyle, Dixon, Brazier (Lusiama), Tweedley, Harris, Gabidon (Daly), Murphy. Unused subs: Roper, Lloyd, Morgan.
Cleethorpes Town: Battersby, Gallimore, Blunden, Foster, Kendall, Vann, Abbott, Andreucci (Haw), Braithwaite, Gratton (Middleton), Walker (O’Grady). Unused subs: Conway.