Off the back of five straight league wins, Dial were forced to settle for a point against a Stones' side who defended stoutly to keep the leaders at bay.

Boss Steve Brown was able to field a nigh on full-strength side for the trip to Jubilee High School, which included a front-three of Jordon Carter, Charlie Marshall and leading marksman Harry Rice.

However, despite Dial's formidable firepower, they were found wanting when it mattered, passing up no less than 10 goal-scoring opportunities in the first half alone.

Eager to put their previous three defeats behind them, The Stones started spritely, and almost took an early lead when Lewis Goodfellow's downward header bounced off the post, before Mitch Vicary lashed his shot over the bar inside the first seven minutes.

After the initial surge, Dial soon had the hosts pinned back in their own half for large spells, with Carter, Rice and Marshall passing up several good opportunities to open the scoring.

Defender James Vass also came close from distance, but was denied by a great finger-tip save from Stones' goalkeeper Luke Edgecombe.

With Dial having the lion's share of possession and registering no less than 10 shots on target against the hosts' three, it seemed like the Stones' defence would eventually buckle under the pressure.

Will Neville and Marshall were both denied by Edgecombe shortly after the restart, but Dial had Andy Rider to thank for pulling off a tremendous save to thwart Jack Crawford from point blank range after 69 minutes.

Although Dial were, at times, treading a fine line defensively, Steve Brown's side showed no signs of slowing down in attack as they lay siege to the Stones' goal.

And the wait looked to finally be over when Rice found himself through on goal in the 87th-minute, but he scuppered the opportunity to give Dial the lead, much to the frustration of the travelling supporters.

Speaking after the match, Brown said: "I thought it was a scrappy game; we didn't get into our usual rhythm.

"That being said, we created enough chances to win the game but we didn’t take any of them. Andy Rider also made an outstanding save in the second half to keep us in the game.

"Overall, we will need to perform much better than we did against Addlestone, but a point away from home is not a bad result in the grand scheme of things. We just need to be more consistent," he added.

DIAL SQUARE: Rider, Rose-Davies (Bicknell), Vass (Vassell), Averiss (Woolgar), Sewell, Neville, Carter, Phillips, Rice, Lawrence (Fortune), Marshall (Cenzano).

MotM: Aidan Phillips