Peaks content with a point as Diamonds stay in the hunt

Diamonds twice came from behind to earn a 2-2 draw at Redditch United thanks to goals from Declan Rogers and Ben Diamond as they extended their unbeaten run to five matches, four of which have been away from home.

The stalemate saw them drop out of the top five, albeit on goal difference and they are one of the teams between third and ninth in the table currently separated by just three points.

It has been an impressive debut at Step 3 so far and, with their season hitting the halfway stage when they take on St Neots Town at Hayden Road on Boxing Day, Peaks couldn’t be happier.

“We are delighted to be part of it,” the Diamonds boss said.

“First and foremost in my mind has been to get enough points to make sure we stay in the league, that’s always the first target for any team that has been promoted.

“But to be in and around the play-off places at this stage is fantastic.

“The top two (Stourbridge and Kettering Town) are running away with it at the moment and that doesn’t surprise me but when it comes to the rest of us, I think every team believes they can give anyone a game.

“From our point of view, we haven’t got that massive pressure on us like we have done in previous seasons. We only have the pressure we put on ourselves.”

Peaks, meanwhile, was content with a share of the spoils at Redditch as Diamonds returned to action after an enforced two-week break.

“Overall, I am quite happy,” he added.

“Certainly when you come back twice away from home, it goes down as a point gained.

“The first thing was to make sure the we kept the run going for another game.

“We also went into it after a two-week break and, historically, when we have had that situation before we have struggled.

“Redditch may have lost a couple of games but we had them watched and we knew they were in all of those.

“They have probably had three or four chances and scored two goals but we came back at them, we showed a lot of character and we could have even nicked it right at the end.

“But it a draw was probably about right and see it as another point gained for us.”