Gravesend & N 2 Accrington Stanley 2

CRAIG McALLISTER’S second goal in as many games gave Fleet a valuable point against high-flying Stanley.

But Andy Ford’s side have now gone 14 games without a win as their rough patch continues.

But the Fleet boss is looking to the positives.

He said: “It was a good point. We were behind twice and it was individual errors that cost us both goals. But I thought our second half performance warranted a point.

“Obviously we needed the three points rather than one but otherwise we were solid in the second half. You can look at our current run in two ways. I prefer to say we’re unbeaten in our last two and our second half performance against Accrington was good.”

He added that he was confident that his side could beat Crawley New Year’s Day after the sides shared the points in a 1-1 draw on Boxing Day.

Paul Mullin gave Accrington the perfect start when he smashed Stanley into the lead with a drive into the top corner from the edge of the area in just the third minute.

But Fleet stormed back at the Lancastrians and they had the equaliser on the half hour mark when Jay Saunders headed home Lee Protheroe’s corner.

But Stanley went back in front just four minutes later through a Steve Jagielka strike.

Fleet pressed in the second half and were heading for defeat but their salvation came 10 minutes from the end when Ian Craney was adjudged to have fouled Andrew Drury in the area and McAllister, on loan from Stevenage, made no mistake from the spot.

It got worse for Accrington in the dying minutes of the game when Jonathan Smith was sent off three minutes from the end for an elbow on Paul McCarthy, which left the defender with a broken nose.

McCarthy will be a doubt for the visit of Crawley with Justin Skinner and Craig McAllister also doubtful after both picked up dead legs in the game against Accrington.

Gravesend: Pullen, Protheroe, Popovic, McCarthy (Moore 88), Skinner (Sidibe 30), Saunders, McKimm, Drury, Jackson (Pinnock 75), Essandoh, McAllister.

Subs not used - Wilkerson, Gledhill.