They went a goal down after only four minutes to visitors Seaton Delaval who had been midweek leaders in the Premier Division.

A Ponteland flag kick was cleared and when David Redhead lost the ball in midfield Delaval went on a quick break. They were thwarted by a flying save from home keeper Michael Havelock but Carl Pennington headed the resulting corner in at the back post.

Each team then had a scoring chance with Delaval's Paul Baird and then Joe Dawson for Pont shooting over when in good positions.

Delaval should have scored again when Paul Ford brought down Pennington in the box but Havelock saved the resulting penalty.

After a quiet opening Andrew Davidson on the left flank for Pont started to cause some problems. He took a corner on the right and, when Redhead returned the ball to him, his inswinging cross was headed by Glenn Ford over the keeper and into the net.

Five minutes later and just before half time United went in front with Davidson again causing the damage. He took the full back on and without breaking stride his early shot surprised the keeper, curling away from him into the bottom corner.

Ponteland's defence still has a vulnerable look about it and the one goal margin was never going to be enough. Craig Daglish conceded a free kick just outside the box on 65 minutes and the cross was met by the unmarked John Fitzpatrick who calmly headed over Havelock for the equaliser.

And two minutes later Delaval were in front once more as veteran defender Geoff Allison headed home to punish slack marking.

With only five minutes to go Richard Kent levelled the scores at 3-3 with a low right foot drive and then nearly scored the winner, but his next attempt was deflected onto the crossbar.

At the end of the day a draw was probably the fairest result but Pont will be disappointed to have secured only two points from their first three Premier Division games, all at home.

Only two games beat the weather in midweek with Alnwick Town and Carlisle City picking up maximum points.

Alnwick beat visitors Seaton Delaval 3-2 with the assistance of an own goal opener gifted by Stephen Torre. Paul Yeadon claimed both of the Town's other goals with Delaval replying in vain through John Amos and John Fitzpatrick.

Also in midweek, the Cumbrian derby between hosts Gillford Park and Carlisle City was won 2-1 by the Park. Matthew Wood's opener for Gillford was cancelled out before half time by City's Jamie Heath. But in the 75th minute a successful spot kick by Stephen Skinner settled the issue in Gillford's favour.

Apart from their opening day victory over Shankhouse, defending champions Walker Central have been short of action. Their home game against Wark was one of three postponed in the Premier Division with Ashington Colliers and Heaton Stannington being the other home teams affected.

Harraby Catholic beat visitors Peterlee Town 2-1 and have now won all three of their opening games in the Premier Division.