Bishop Auckland survived a scare at bottom club Stokesley before they won 3-2 in the STL Northern League last night.

After leading 1-0 against their opponents who haven’t won a league game this season, Bishops found themselves trailing 2-1 at the break.

Bishops took the lead when Dan Hawkins set up Darren Richardson to score from a few yards, but Stokesley hit back with two goals in three minutes from former player Adam Emson..

But Bishops levelled on 65 minutes when Richardson scored with a deflected shot, and Andy Johnson got the winner from a disputed penalty seven minutes from the end. The goal makes him the joint top scorer in division one with 29.

In the other first division game, Consett and Bedlington drew 0-0 at Belle Vue. Consett manager Kenny Lindoe said: "We had enough chances to win comfortably. We had at least four one on ones but forwards were firing blanks.We played well and should have won but they could have nicked it late on."

In the second division, bottom club Easington made second in the table Morpeth fight all the way, but they went down to a late Steven Anderson penalty. Easington manager Paul Adamson said: "We were down to bare bones with 11 players missing for various reasons and were very unlucky to not take anything from the game a very debatable penalty in the last minute has cost us."

The game between Esh Winning and Hebburn was held up for 20 minutes by a floodlight failure , before Hebburn won 3-2 after being 2-1 down. Hebburn took the lead through Paul Gardiner, but Esh came back to lead 2-1 with two goals by Craig Coates. However, hit back with goals by Gardiner and a late winner by Dan Kirkup. Esh though were furious about the dismissal of midfielder Alex Wilson. Esh manager Andrew Soppitt said: "In the first half I thought we were lucky to be in front because they were the better team. However in the second half we were comfortable until the sending off which was a terrible decision. In fact, it was a great tackle by Alex. We were always going to struggle after that." Hebburn manager Paul Bennett said: "Another hard fought three points. The lads continue to dig deep and give everything we ask of them. Esh is a very hard place to go to and win. We have another hard game against Gillford Park on Saturday."

In the Brooks Mileson Northern League Cup, Spennymoor beat Guisborough for the first time in three attempts this season thanks to a Calvin Smith goal just after half time. Guisborough manager Chris Hardy said: "I came away from the game disappointed with our offensive play this evening, with four key players missing tonight this made the task that much harder to break down the visitors. "Having said that the effort and application from the lads was first class, this maybe proves how far we have came as a team, when we get respectably beaten by the league champions 1-0 and I feel disappointed in knowing that we could have done better in certain areas of our game to get more out of tonight's match."

West Auckland are still involved in three competitions after they won 1-0 at Shildon, Micky Rae scoring two minutes into the second period of extra time. Shildon manager Gary Forrest said: "We really disappointed as it was missed chances that let us down tonight. I thought we had the majority of the play, missed four great chances and had two great penalty claims turned down. They took their only real chance all game."

North Shields provided the shock of the night, beating Newcastle Benfield 2-1 in Perry Briggs’ first game in charge of Benfield, Paul Dunn scoring the winner deep into extra time.

In the Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup, Darlington RA had a good 4-2 home win over Whickham to go into the semi finals against Northallerton. They were 2-0 up at half time through Gary Barnes and Steve Allison, and by the hour mark were 4-0 up with further goals by Mike Barnett and Nick Harrison, but Whickham caused a few scares when Scott Robson and Lawrence McKenna scored. RA manager Nick Harrison said: "It was a strong performance. We looked good going forward all night and we were strong at the back until the final minutes. Credit to the lads and our groundsman, who allowed us to play our passing game again!"

Wednesday STL Northern League Division One.

Consett 0 Bedlington 0, Stokesley 2(Emson 2) Bishop Auckland 3 (Richardson 2, Johnson).

Division Two.

Esh Winning 2 (Coates 2) Hebburn 3 (Gardiner 2, Kirkup), Morpeth 1 (Anderson) Easington 0.

Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup.

Darlington RA 4 (Barnes, Allinson, Barnett, Harrison) Whickham 2 (Robson, McKenna), Brooks Mileson Northern League Cup.

Guisborough 0 Spennymoor 1 (Smith), Newcastle Benfield 1 (Antony) North Shields 2 (Sheeran, Dunn) (after extra time), Shildon 0 West Auckland 1 (Rae) (after extra time).