Rushall 0 Ossett Town 0

A lack of goalscoring potency against UniBond League Premier Division promotion chasers Ossett Town means the Pics will travel to West Yorkshire on Tuesday.

Manager Paul Holleran was again forced to dig deep into his threadbare squad, making three changes.

Clear cut chances were few and far between during the first period as both sides scrapped to gain any territorial advantage.

After the visitors had a goal disallowed, Ossett had stopper Piotr Skiba to thank for maintaining parity on 12 minutes when an initial Grant Beckett shot from the edge of the box rebounded to Damien Charie, whose first time strike from 12 yards was excellently blocked out by the Pole.

Some rash challenges brought the game's evidently simmering tension to the boil when Pics' Niki Preston was left in a crumpled heap. The cynical tackle went unpunished by the match officials, whose failure to take control of proceedings back fired spectacularly on 35 minutes when a big scuffle broke out involving most of the outfield players.

Ossett midfielder Damien Dunne had followed straight through on keeper Tony Breeden with an extremely late challenge. Even then he only got booked.

Although the West Yorkshire outfit began the second period in a more determined fashion, it was Rushall who were quickly back on the offensive.

Newcomer Harry Harris, on loan from Walsall, chanced his arm with a powerful 30-yard drive that curled marginally wide of the right post.

Ossett's Rob O'Brien saw a long range effort of his own sail marginally wide - but that is as close as the visitors came. As the tie edged to its increasingly predictable outcome, Pics almost grabbed a late winner orchestrated by Harris.

The teenager threaded a fine cross field pass into the feet of Neil Barnfield, but he could only side foot wide from just outside the box.