Dorchester boss Mark Morris believes the Dr Martens Eastern Division promotion race will go down to the wire after his men fought out their second draw of the season against title rivals Hastings.

"If we'd won it today it wouldn't have won us the league and neither does a draw mean we are out of it. We haven't gained any ground and we haven't lost any - it's still all in the melting pot," said Morris whose former side took a first-half lead before Matt Groves levelled early in the second-half.

Then Groves almost grabbed a stoppage time winner when he smashed the rebound against the arm of Hastings' Dave King from a couple of yards after the towering gloveman had failed to hold Danny O'Hagan's blistering drive.

"Of course we would liked to have won, but if anyone had offered me a draw at half-time when we were 1-0 down I probably would have taken it.

"Looking on the positive side, I thought we played relatively well and if there was going to be a winner I thought it would be us.

"Next week we have Rugby at home and Hastings have to go to Grantham. One of them must drop points and if we can win next week, which is no certainty because there are no pushovers in the league, we can close the gap again."

Hastings' point took them to the top of the table because Grantham were otherwise engaged putting Premier Division Moor Green out of the FA Trophy.

Morris added: "It will go to the wire because there are four sides looking realistically as though they can do something. We are still in there with a good chance and we haven't been beaten yet by any of them except for Histon when we were down to ten men."

Morris had his strongest substitute line-up of the season at The Avenue Stadium on Saturday and with the score at 1-1 early in the second-half, some Magpies fans were urging him to make changes in a bid to snatch all three points.

Top scorer Justin Keeler, who was given little chance to shine by Hastings' full back Steve Yates, was probably the most likely man to give way to either Phil Andrews or Martyn Sullivan if the Dorchester manager had wanted to shake up his front line.

Morris admitted he had been tempted, but wasn't prepared to gamble. "It was tempting to change things but we were in a situation where if you change things and it goes wrong people would have said why did he change it," he explained.

"We weren't losing and I thought we had the upper hand and were looking like we could go and win the game. It would have been a gamble to change it because although Justin wasn't playing particularly well he is the type of player who is always likely to score from nothing. That's the cut and thrust of management. In hindsight everyone could turn round and say I should have changed this, that and the other- but they are not sitting in my position where the result means so much."

Morris admitted Hastings are a good side. "They haven't lost many games this year and it was always going to be a close one," he said. "But we showed great character to come back into the game after giving away a sloppy goal when my two centre halves were asleep when their goalkeeper pumped a long ball into the heart of our defence.

"Even then I thought the lad who scored it was fortunate because his chip was going wide until it caught a divot at the far post and sneaked in. But he deserved his good fortune and when you are playing a side like Hastings you are giving yourself a mountain to climb when you give away a goal like that."