DARWEN drew a league match for the first time this season against the side from Staffordshire.

They gave a first start to Latvian goalkeeper Konstantins Upenieks, and full back Chris Pearson.

The visitors created their first chance after eight minutes, when Paul Mashiter ran down the left wing and pulled the ball back to the edge of the area for Jason Jones to shoot. Deaville in the Leek goal initially fumbled the shot, but recovered quickly.

It was 10 minutes before half-time before another chance occurred for the away side. Jones pulled the ball wide from the same position he was in earlier.

A minute later, Leek had a great opportunity, when Rutter broke through into the penalty area, but he was denied by Upenieks.

Minutes before the interval, Deaville had to push away a volley from Paul Crompton, then react to get in the way of a snap shot from Dominic Slaven and the follow-up from Jon Stephenson.

Early in the second half, it looked like Darwen had taken the lead when Paul Mashiter looped a header over the Leek keeper, but Deaville managed to get a faint touch to the ball and it bounced off the cross-bar.

Darwen did go in front after 52 minutes, when Matt Haworth's corner from the left went to the far post, where Matt Anderton headed in.

Leek started to come more into the game, and Upenieks had to be alert to turn away a Machin strike, with Daniel Finch clearing the danger.

But they squared the match when Rutter netted from the spot.

Machin didn't last the game, as a leg injury forced him to retire, and as the home side had by this time used all their substitutes, they had to play the last 15 minutes with 10 men.