Cambridge United ended the 2018/19 season with a 1-1 draw against Macclesfield Town, as the hosts secured their League Two safety at Moss Rose.
The U’s lined up with three changes as Jabo Ibehre, Greg Taylor and Alex Jones stepped into the starting eleven.
Ibehre missed a guilt-edged opportunity inside seven minutes to break the deadlock for the U’s against a nervy Silkmen outfit, but the unmarked striker failed to get enough contact on his header six yards out to direct Jevani Brown’s in-swinging cross past Kieran O’Hara.
Harry Smith was found in behind the U’s back four on 13 minutes with a clipped pass by Elliot Durrell but the Macclesfield front man failed to test Dimitar Mitov, as he blasted over under pressure from Brad Halliday.
Harrison Dunk’s powerful half volley looked to darting towards the top corner of the Slikmen’s net moments later, but the slightest of deflections carried it away from the target.
Ben Stephens looked alert when the forward ran on to a block from Harry Darling and carried the ball into the U’s 18 yard box, but dragged his shot across goal and wide in what was the clearest opening in front of goal after 24 minutes.
Hayden Coulson went close when the Middlesbrough loanee found himself on the end of Jabo Ibehre’s knock down and he bounced a shot against the turf which looped fractions over O’Hara’s cross bar.
It was Paul Lewis against his former side who broke the deadlock moments before the break though, when the midfielder thumped home a loose ball on the edge of the Macclesfield area, giving O’Hara chance.
Halliday cleared off the goal line inside a minute of the restart when Dimitar Mitov fumbled a cross after the Bulgarian looked to have been fouled by Harry Smith.
With results elsewhere not in favour of Macclesfield as the game approached the final 30 minutes, the tension increased around Moss Rose with the U’s being forced to defend with greater regularity and the hosts went in search of a goal that would secure their position in the Football League.
The Silkmendid just that and levelled the scores on 65 minutes when Elliot Durrell ran in behind Harry Darling and produced a composed finish across Mitov to pick out the far corner.
Ben Worman was introduced with 15 minutes to play as the young forward stepped onto the field for his League debut.
With the permutations at the bottom of the League reversing in favour of the Silkmen , they set up to see out the fixture which meant United picked up a final point to complete the campaign.
Macclesfield Town: O’Hara, Fitzpatrick, Kelleher, Durrell (Wilson, 89 mins), Smith, Stephens (Cole, 60 mins), Evans (Marsh, 72 mins), Rose, Cameron, Jules, Ntambwe
Bookings: Smith
Cambridge United: Mitov, Halliday (Taft, 65 mins), John, Darling, Dunk (Carroll, 65 mins), Lewis, Taylor, Coulson, Brown, Jones, Ibehre (Worman, 75 mins)
Bookings: Coulson