Northallerton Town moved up to fifth bottom thanks to a 2-1 win at bottom club Morpeth last Saturday The home side, who haven’t won this season, took the lead through Danny Carr after 12 minutes, but Northallerton equalised through a Darren Mowbray penalty following a foul on Matthew Coad before half-time.

They got the winner when Aaron Ramsbottom’s cross was helped into the net by the Morpeth keeper.

Northallerton manager Mark Fanning said: “It was a very tricky surface, hard in some areas and soft in others.

Having said that, we were keen to play because we didn’t want to go back up there for a midweek game later in the season.”

Spennymoor Town manager Jason Ainsley blasted his players for some poor defending after relegation-battling Stokesley pulled off one of the shock results of the season, beating the champions 3-2.

Moors, who are in the last 16 of the Vase, and in the running to win their second successive title and two other cups, were dreadful defensively, according to Ainsley.

“We were a shambles in defence, he said. You wouldn’t have thought we’ve got the best defensive record in the league, by the way we defended.

I would say that it was schoolboy defending, but I would be disrespectful to schoolboys.”

Stokesley took the lead when Anthony Hume set up Glenn Robson to quickly turn and fire past Craig Turns.

Moors piled on the pressure, and equalised five minutes into the second half when Tommy English crossed for Lewis Dodds to head in.

But Stokesley regained the lead on 78 minutes with a strike by Lev Yalcin, but Moors managed to equalise through Leon Ryan following a short corner, and looked set to go on and win. But Moors defending let them down again when Robson scored from a Yalcin cross.

Stokesley manager Ted Watts said: “For long periods in the game we were under the cosh, but we defended well and took our goals well.”

Guisborough beat bottom club Brandon 4-0 at the King George.

David Onions put them into the lead with a deflected shot after 20 minutes, and Luke Bythway headed the second just after half-time.

Onions added the third from close range, then Chris I’Anson fired the fourth.

“It was a good win for us,”

said Guisborough manager Chris Hardy. “We kept a clean sheet and improved our goal difference.”

Crook Town striker Andy Appleby scored all four of his sides goals in their win over Darlington RA, to become the third player to score four goals in a league game against the RA this season.

He opened the scoring after 25 minutes when he held off a defender and fired past the RA keeper, and a few minutes later he notched his second in a goalmouth scramble.

He completed his hattrick before half-time from the spot after Darren Kokes was brought down, and his fourth was the goal of the game, an excellent header from a Martin O’Riordan cross.