Spennymoor Town made hard work of beating second bottom South Shields before they picked up three points at the Brewery Field last night.

Moors wasted several chances in the first hour but couldn’t put the ball in the net because of a mixture of poor finishing and good goalkeeping by Shields keeper James Winter.

However, Shields were finally breached when Micky Rae cut in from the right, wrongfooted a defender, and slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

Moors are now 23 points behind leaders Darlington with eight games in hand. Manager jason Ainsley said: "We played well first half but missed lots of good chances which I thought would come back and bite us, but fortunately Micky Rae scored a superb goal and secure a valuable win."

Second placed West Auckland were held to a 2-2 draw at Billingham Synthonia.

West took the lead through Ashley Coffey from a free kick on 40 minutes, but Synners levelled through Nathan Wilson from a Nathan Jameson assist on 52 minutes. John Campbell put West back in front on 79 minutes with a penalty, but two minutes later Jameson broke away and rounded Chris Mullins for the equaliser.

West Auckland manager Peter Dixon said: "We lost players during the game, and we had to move others around. We conceded a bad goal for the second, but Synners are a good team."

Billingham Synthonia assistant manager Lee Tucker said: "We are a bit disappointed to come away with only a point after playing so well. West had a good half hour spell in the first half, but other than that we were much the better side."

After being two goals down at one stage, Billingham Town earned three valuable points in an amazing 7-3 win at Guisborough, and keep their hopes alive of avoiding relegation.

The home side led with two goals in the first ten minutes Daniel Johnson and Nathan Steel, but Town battled back to lead 3-2 through Matty Garbutt’s shot, a Harrison Davies penalty, and Danny Brunskill from a rebound.

Guisborough quickly levelled through Liam O’Sullivan, but then Town bounced back in a thrilling second half . Brunskill scored from six yards, Davies scored from out wide with the goal of the game, and Brunskill completed his hat trick. Nicky Martin finished off the scoring with four minutes left.

Town manager Carl Jarrett said: "I got the reaction I wanted from my team. We played some good stuff and really deserved the three points."

Norton moved closer to the drop when they lost 4-1 at home to Celtic Nation, after being level 1-1 at half time. The match didn’t finish until 10pm because of the late arrival of the CN team, and an injury to one of the CN players.

CN manager Steve Skinner said: "It was a good win. The first half was very poor, but I can'c complain as we arrived late, got changed and played. We were very good in the second half, we kept the ball well and were very comfortable. the lads tired in the last 15 but that's going to happen. I'm very happy."