A LATE Nathan Craig strike rescued a point for Caernarfon Town against fierce rivals Holyhead Hotspur.

The Huws Gray Alliance leaders were made to work hard by the Holy Islanders and had to wait until the dying moments before the Cofi skipper levelled in fortunate fashion to end the game 1-1, and they face two crucial weeks in their quest for promotion to start the New Year.

Sean Eardley’s side travel to fifth placed Denbigh Town on Saturday, before welcoming a resurgent Rhyl to the Oval on January 13 for what is set to be another huge encounter at the summit.

Eardley said: “Holyhead is not an easy place to come, it’s a hostile atmosphere but credit to both sides they had their spells in the game and I am sure it decent one for the neutral “I have to commend my players, they showed tremendous character and were knocking on the door but got caught with sucker punch but reacted well “We changed shape to force the issue and although the goal came in fortunate circumstances on reflection it was a fair result and I would have taken a point at the start of the day.

“I wasn’t happy with the start. We were slack and a few were getting on at each other which I don’t like but sometimes that’s what it takes to ignite people and when you have players like we have they are always going to create and once things were dropping we seemed to settle.

“Happy with a point and still on target to what we want to achieve. We have to be patient in order to create opportunities but when you come here you need to come away with something and thankfully we have done that. We have attacking players who can hurt teams so it is frustrating sometimes when we don’t take our chances, but I felt it was only a matter of time.”

The home side took the lead on 64 minutes when Mel McGinness unleashed a left-foot effort into the top corner after good work from Tomos Clarke.

With the game nearing its conclusion, Craig managed to equalise when his corner caught the wind on 88 minutes and flew past Paul Pritchard to claim a share of the spoils in dramatic fashion.

Campbell Harrison’s side are now ninth in the standings ahead of their home clash with Holywell Town on Saturday.