THIS was very much the dustcart after the Lord Mayor's show in midweek.

The scrappy game was but a poor shadow of H&Y's fantastic 2-1 at Oxford on Tuesday, with the Blue Square Premier's bottom side wasting the best chances. A better team than relegation-doomed Grays would have collected all three points.

In fact, once boss Garry Haylock removed striker Steve Basham at half-time, all scoring threat from a United point of view went out the window.

Haylock also decided to replace Justin Cochrane, inadvertently whacked in the eye by his team-mate Adam Green, with Nathan Webb to shore up a porous right flank.

But it was the home side beaten nine out of the last 10 including 4-0 back at Church Road last month, that saw Alex Rhodes wasteful and then some, when his tame effort five minutes into the second-half failed to test Clark Masters.

And the keeper did well to smother a late Wayne Gray effort from just eight yards to preserve a point in the last five minutes.

It was also late on Dale Binns got a rare sight of goal on the left, but the Hayes player hammered his effort high, wide and unhandsome for one of the few times the reds ventured into the Grays box..

Before that, Ram Marwa had the best chance of the first-half for United - but Grays had more of them.

The former player from the Essex club found himself one-on-one with the keeper after 18 minutes from only 10 yards, but Glyn Garner spread himself well to block the chance.

Thereafter, Garys cut a swathe down the left leaving poor Danny Allen-Page, playing his first game in a month, horribly exposed.

In fact, Rhodes should have done better when cutting in, but his miskicked pea-roller left both Allen-Page and Masters mighty relieved.

There was nothing the H&Y keeper could do on 31 minutes when Jamie Guy was again given the freedom of the flank, but the Grays striker's dangerous cross was headed woefully wide at the back post by Gray.

Mark Clarey should have done better when he blasted over at the back-post as he latched on to a half-cleared free-kick, the result of Tom Cadmore hauling down Gray that earned the H&Y defender a yellow card.

Referee Amy Fearn also got her notebook out to caution Kenny Davis for a particularly nasty challenge on Binns, and Binns himself saw yellow for an innocuous check on the edge of his own box to complete a match unlikely to feature high on either fans' favourites.