Spalding United are four points better off after a fruitful bank holiday weekend.
The Tulips followed up Saturday’s 3-1 win against Worksop Town with a fully deserved 1-1 draw at pre-season title favourites South Shields.
What looked to be a tricky trip saw Mane Sani come off the bench to grab a last-gasp equaliser and he still had time to have another strike wiped out for offside.
Manager Jimmy Dean paid tribute to club chairman Andrew Killingsworth for helping his team pick up that point in a fixture he feared the worst from, after losing 4-0 there last season in the FA Cup.
“I’m buzzing with that, I’m buzzing with a point,” he said. “I’ve been having nightmares about this fixture but started to believe we could get something here and it really helped us having a stopover the night before.
“The chairman gave us a chance and the boys have repaid him by working their socks off.
“South Shields had a lot of the ball, more than I would have liked. They had so many chances and scored a worldy from outside the box, no one saves that.
“After that we had two good chances, scored the goal and then had an offside from a cross, that doesn’t usually happen. If that was wrong, the linesman’s cost us two points and a magical moment.
“It’s a starting point, a foundation, with eight points. We’ve lost two out of six, won two and had two draws. Every game is a cup final and we have to maximise our output.”
All the goals against Worksop came from giant striker Bart Cybulski, who struck after 26, 36 and 57 minutes, before the visitors pulled one back in the 66th minute.
Hat-trick hero Cybulski said: “I feel great. It’s important to win games in general but this for us was a must-win.
These are going to be at least mid-table so we want to be above them. Beating them 3-1 was a good sign, a fairly comfortable result.
“It’s always an honour to score a hat-trick but it always happens when my parents are away!”
“The boys out wide left me just to tap them in. They made my job so much easier, I just had to be in the right place at the right time.”
Tulips (v Worksop): Crook, Olopade, Kelly, Moore, Johnson, Bendle (Straughan-Brown), Roberts (Xavier-Jones), Pugh, Cybulski (Sani), Fowkes (Betteka), Byrne. Subs (not used): Wilks, Fox, Sembie-Ferris.
Attendance: 695.
Tulips (v Shields): Crook, Olopade, Kelly, Moore, Johnson, Xavier-Jones (Sani), Pugh (Betteka), Cybulski (Sembie-Ferris), Fowkes, Byrne (Bendle), Straughan-Brown. Subs (not used): Wilks, Fox, Roberts.
Attendance: 1,863.
