BOSS Gary Hackett hailed Stourbridge's Lazarus-style fightback to draw Monday's Black Country barnstormer with Halesowen but insisted: "We should have won."

The Glassboys recovered from their early horror show, which saw Yeltz raced into a two-goal lead inside five minutes, thanks to Luke Benbow's brace either side of the break.

Hackett's men then peppered Dan Platt's goal but the visiting custodian was in fine form, denying Chris Lait, Dan Scarr and Leon Broadhurst at point-blank range to secure a 2-2 draw at Amblecote.

The pendulum swung on 23 minutes when Hackett brought an abrupt end to his experiment with three at the back, which immediately reaped its rewards.

"I read a piece on Brian Clough where he said tactics don't lose games, players do," said Hackett. "But don't get me wrong, the first 10 minutes was probably as bad as anything I have experienced here.

"We were at sixes and sevens, it was 2-0 and could easily have been three but credit to the players, they fought back. While we made the change, there was also a shift in attitude and we played a lot of good football to get back into the game.

"In the second half, there was only one team trying to win it but fair play to Halesowen, they rode their luck a bit and scraped a point. We had to come back from the dead and deserve credit for that, even if I felt we should have won the game.

"Luke Benbow put away his penalty brilliantly and his second goal was fantastic. That is what he is capable of and we hope to see plenty more of that in the coming weeks."

That followed Saturday's 2-1 FA Cup second qualifying round victory at Mickleover Sports. Lait's curled effort and a fierce Drew Canavan free-kick seven minutes from time sealed a trip to Ilkeston, currently bottom of Stourbridge's league, in the penultimate round before the competition proper.

"On Saturday, we put in a professional performance against a decent Mickleover team. We deserved to win." said Hackett. "Ilkeston is winnable. We are disappointed to have an away draw again but that's the way it goes, we know we will have to beat decent teams if we want to reach that first round."

Stourbridge entertain Whitby Town in the Evostik Northern Premier League on Saturday (3pm).