With the Midland Combination programme lost to snow and ice for the second week running, Saints manager Barry Shearsby was relieved to get his players on to the Myton School artificial pitch for the friendly against Leamington on Saturday.
Despite going down 2-1 to the Zamaretto Premier Division side, Shearsby took plenty of positives from his team's performance.
He said: "After all the recent weather problems, I was just happy to get a full 90 minutes work-out for the squad. I fel
t going into the match that, as long as we worked hard, the score didn't matter but, in the end, I thought that we did enough to snatch a draw."
Shearsby used all his available players, making wholesale changes at half-time.
One absentee was goalkeeper Ollie Manuel, so Andy Biffen, who played in the last two league matches against Meir KA and Racing Club Warwick, went between the sticks for the whole match.
Two new faces for Saints were George Curry, who turned out for Brakes in the 2008-09 pre-season friendly against Wimborne Town prior to going to America and former New Windmill favourite Ryan Parisi, who is expected to play for Saints until he joins the RAF in March.
Tomorrow, Saints return to league action with a match at fifth-placed Heath Hayes, described by Shearsby as "huge".
With Saints looking to gain ground on their promotion rivals, much will depend on the form of leading scorer Jim Graham, who netted against Brakes.
Parisi is the only injury doubt after picking up a knock against Brakes.
Next Wednesday, Saints travel to Bartley Green for their re-arranged Birmingham County Midweek Floodlit Challenge Cup quarter-final tie.
