MARK Jermyn hailed his squad’s character after they battled back to seal a 2-2 draw with Leamington at the Avenue.

The Magpies, who were thumped 10-0 by Salisbury with a much different looking side last Tuesday, showed no signs of crumbling as they rallied to take a point against the Brakes, thanks to a Jake Smeeton penalty and a strike from Ben Wood.

Giving his thoughts on the clash, Jermyn told Echosport: “We have to be respectful to every team that we play and we are respectful to how Leamington are getting on, they have started the season really well.

“They have a very good teem with strength all over the park so I think Saturday was a very hard-fought draw.

“The boys that played on Saturday, I could not speak highly enough of them. They are really putting in the effort and it’s good to see.”

He added: “I spoke to the Leamington manager after the game and said ‘you have a very good team there’. He said ‘to be fair, you have a better side than you had last season’.

“I don’t know if that’s 100 per cent true but I think that it just shows the character of the players that have remained and the ones that have come in, with how hard they are prepared to work.

“In the last seven or eight weeks the players have really knuckled down. We know how we want to play and what we want to do, hopefully we can pick up more results.”

He continued: “Hopefully we have put Tuesday night to bed now. It was a bad scoreline, that’s undeniable, to concede so many goals wasn’t great but hopefully people will understand with the size of the squad we have got we just can’t take the risk. Saturday proved that in my opinion.”