Kings Langley earned a deserved point following a battling display in a 1-1 draw at Weymouth, although their safety margin to the Southern League Premier Division drop zone was reduced to two points.

A superb long-range effort from Ollie Cox early in the second half cancelled out the Terras’ 12th-minute opener, but Kings' cushion over the bottom four was halved by Cirencester Town’s 2-1 victory over Redditch United.

In what proved to be an entertaining end-to-end affair with plenty of incident, the drama started as early as the fifth minute when Steve Ward’s jinking run was unceremoniously curtailed as the winger burst into the box. As the home faithful held their breath, referee Robert Cockle decided the offence was a fraction outside the box and the resultant free-kick came to nothing.

This incident was quickly followed by another opportunity when Lewis Toomey broke clear only for the Kings striker to be denied by a smart save by Weymouth custodian Jason Matthews. That was matched moments later by an equally fine stop by Xavi Comas in thwarting the prolific Stuart Fleetwood.

With both teams committed to going forward, an early breakthrough always looked likely and so it proved in the 12th minute when Calvin Brooks broke on the right and delivered a pin-point cross for the onrushing Mark Cooper to volley home from close range.

The strike rocked the visitors and they took a while to re-establish their attacking fluency. However, they remained resolute in defence and with captain Jorell Johnson once again marshalling his resources effectively, the visitors negotiated the remainder of the first half without further mishap.

Whatever the Kings management said during the interval certainly had a galvanising effect, as they were straight out the blocks and were level within two minutes.

Kieron Turner broke on the left, the ball was fed into Cox and from fully 30 yards the midfielder finished with a terrific drive into the right hand corner, giving Matthews no chance.

The fine strike buoyed Kings and their attacking potency increased accordingly with both Sam Tring and Jerry Amoo going close following dead ball situations.

The hosts were also creating opportunities and Comas, who looked assured throughout, had to be at his best to deny the home attack on more than one occasion as the match see-sawed from end to end with both teams looking for the crucial breakthrough.

Kings’ best chance came late on but was again shrouded with contention. Toomey broke on the left and delivered the perfect low cross into Amoo, but the inrushing forward was tackled from behind when he looked certain to score and to the dismay of the travelling fans, the referee again waved away penalty claims.

There was still time for Comas to make a superb one-handed save to deny the mid-table hosts the winner as Kings picked up another point in their quest for survival.

Kings Langley: Comas; Connolly, Johnson, Tring, Plowright; Ward (Pattison 87), Coldicott-Stevens, Cox, Turner (Stobbs 78); Toomey, Amoo. Subs not used: Waldren, Balogun and Gosling.