Macc Town 0 Aldershot 0

Macclesfield did everything but score a vital winner as Aldershot held out in a stalemate.

With the other six top-seven sides all embroiled in matches against one another it was a day when Macc could have make big inroads into the gap at the top but although they gained a point on Bristol Rovers and Barnet, who both lost, the Silkmen were overtaken by Grimsby, winners at Woking.

Aldershot came to town on the back of a four-match unbeaten run and they more than held their own in the first half. They could, and probably should have scored but keeper Rhys Taylor was once again in inspired form, at one stage pulling off a wondrous triple stop 26 minutes in.

Tristan Plummer sprang the offside trap and homed in on goal but Taylor's touch sent him wide. Plummer did manage to pick out Brett Williams though and Taylor somehow denied the striker, receiving a hefty blow in the process of the second one.

Macc's best chance of the half had come early in the proceedings, with Alex Grant enjoying the odd foray up front from left-back. He timed his back-post run brilliantly to connect with a cross from Chris Holroyd but Shots stopper Phil Smith was able to turn it behind.

The Shots had possibly shaded that half but their defence were under scrutiny in the second period. They were grateful to Smith for a full-length save from Paul Turnbull's free-kick and a goalbound shot from Danny Whitaker.

Macc were painfully close to breaking the visitors' resistance at the end but Turnbull and Whitaker were both wide of the mark and after Barnes-Homer headed one narrowly wide he and Waide Fairhurst found Smith in inspired form.

Aldershot barely got out of their own half in the last quarter of the match, although Jim Stevenson rocketed a great chance way over the bar with five minutes to play.

They somehow held out to take home a point after their determined rearguard showing.