GUISBOROUGH TOWN vaulted three places up the Northern League Division One into third position as they completed a dramatic double over Newcastle Benfield at the KGV Stadium on Saturday.

The 3-2 win made it eight league games unbeaten for the Priorymen as well as only one defeat in their last 12 league and cup matches.

It was a last-gasp Luke Bythway goal which clinched the victory after a hugely entertaining see-saw tussle in which Benfield twice came back from behind.

Bythway, who was outstanding foraging menacingly up front, opened the scoring for Guisborough in the 18th minute in controversial circumstances when Benfield winger Chris Youldon was adjudged to have brought Chay Liddle down just inside the box.

Both sides continued to attack in what was developing into a highly entertaining end-to-end contest and after several chances went begging, Benfield deservedly drew level four minutes before half time. An incisive three-man passing move involving Michael Riley, Daniel Taylor and Paul Brayson ended in the latter scoring from close range to maintain his prolific league scoring record.

After the interval both sides continued to play attractive, attacking football and only some fine goalkeeping from Guisborough’s Nick Liversedge and Benfield’s Andrew Grainger kept the score level.

But with just four minutes of normal time to go, Guisborough snatched a 2-1 lead when another excellent sweeping three-man move involving a link-up between Chay Liddle, Bythway and substitute Liam McPhillips ended with the latter slotting home to seemingly secure the points for the Priorymen. Benfield, however, refused to give up and in the 89th minute they won a corner from which Steve Tobin rifled the ball home to level the scores at 2-2.

But there was more drama to come when Guisborough attacked in the fourth minute of time added on and Grainger pulled off a brilliant acrobatic save to deny Chay Liddle his moment of glory. But, ironically, from the resultant corner the unfortunate Grainger cancelled out his wonderful save moments earlier by fumbling the ball and it rebounded off Bythway’s back of all places and squirmed agonisingly over the line to give Guisborough an unexpected but memorable 3-2 victory.

Even Guisborough Town Manager Chris Hardy was honest to admit afterwards that when the scores were level on 90 minutes that would have been a fair reflection of play overall.

He said: “Today's game saw an openly-contested game of football which flowed from end to end with both sides having their fair share of chances.

"But credit to the lads for keeping going to the final whistle and somehow managing to win the game in the 94th minute.”