A late equaliser from Port Vale denied the U's a valuable away win on Saturday.
Courtney Senior opened the scoring in the twelfth minute, hitting a shot across the keeper and into the bottom corner.
David Worrall equalised for the hosts just after the half hour mark, but Drey Wright's first time shot regained the lead in injury time at the end of the first half.
The U's held the hosts at arms length for the majority of the second half, but Worrall got his second with five minutes remaining to level the game up.
There were two changes to the U’s starting line-up, with Mikael Mandron and Courtney Senior coming in for Ryan Inniss and Kurtis Guthrie.
It was the first start for young forward Senior, who had scored as a sub earlier in the season and had made two cameo appearances off the bench in the past two fixtures.
And it only took the youngster eleven minutes to get his name on the scoresheet, following both keepers comfortably saving early efforts.
Mandron looped a header into Lainton’s arms, and then Walker comfortably took Michael Tonge’s free kick.
Walker also had to dive to his right to save a Tonge shot from the edge of the box, and that save came three minutes before Senior’s opener.
Ryan Jackson had crossed from the right, Sammie Szmodics and Sean Murray were involved before the ball found its way to Senior on the left angle of the box.
He took a touch and then put a shot across Lainton, a shot that had the accuracy to beat the keeper despite lacking absolute power.
The goal seemed to galvanise the U’s, and it was they who looked most likely to score the second goal of the game in the following minutes.
Mandron put a header just over the bar from a Murray free-kick from wide right, and then Murray himself drilled a shot just wide after great work from Tom Eastman and Jackson down the right.
The hosts then started to get a foothold in the game, but couldn’t find a way through the U’s defence to test Walker.
That changed just after the half hour mark, when David Worrall chested a ball down, cut inside Kane Vincent-Young and drilled his near post shot past the diving Walker to level things up.
Vale then had two chances in the space of thirty seconds, with Walker palming away a close range header before Antony Kay headed just past the post.
In injury time, due to the fourth official and assistant referee changing duties, the U’s retook the lead, and it was Drey Wright’s first goal of the season.
Szmodics capitalised on some indecision in the Port Vale defence, pulled the ball back to Wright and he decided to hit it first time.
It was a great hit, and Lainton couldn’t get down quick enough to prevent it going under his body and into the net.
That was the final action of the first half, with the whistle going seconds later.
At the start of the second period, there was an open feel to the game as both sides went forward looking for what would have been a massive goal either way.
In the first U’s attack of the half, Szmodics had a shot blocked at the edge of the box.
At the other end, Vale had two efforts – a shot wide from Montano and then Forrester’s low near post shot that Walker had to palm wide.
Just after the hour mark, McGreal made his first change as he brought on Brandon Comley for the tiring Senior, who had opened the scoring.
Comley added a bit defensive to the U’s side, and that was needed as the hosts started to take control of the game.
They weren’t creating clear cut chances but more and more balls were being put into the U’s area, a tactic that McGreal countered with is second substitution.
Luke Prosser was introduced on seventy four minutes at the expense of the other U’s scorer Drey Wright.
Four minutes later, Guthrie replaced Mandron, but much of his work was done off the ball as the hosts continued to dominate possession.
And the opening they were looking for came in the eighty sixth minute.
A shot from outside the box was mishit and was heading wide of the post, but a touch from Worrall deflected it into the bottom corner of the U’s net for the late leveller.
Although the home crowd now willed their side to go for a winner, they failed to create any further chances in the remaining few minutes, and four of injury time.
The final whistle went and although it could prove to be a valuable away point for the U’s, it felt like two dropped after being ahead for so long in the second half.