Bedlington crept closer to the top of the Northern League with a 4-0 home win over bottom-club Crook Town yesterday.

Bedlington are now in third place in the table, seven points behind leaders Durham with nine games in hand.

They took the lead after 25 minutes when prolific striker John Milner scored from a pass by Robbie Cockburn and ten minutes later Cockburn provided the pass again for Milner to run through and score his second.

Milner then completed his hat-trick with a header while Warren Teesdale completed the scoring with another header.

Dunston are in second place following a 2-1 home win over Newcastle Blue Star.After a goalless first half Andy Fletcher headed Dunston into the lead. Paul Hogg added a secondwith another header after 75 minutes.

Blue Star substitute Lee Dixon scored a late consolation for the visitors. Peterlee dropped two places into fourth after they were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Consett.

Andy Lowe fired Peterlee into the lead, but Consett midfielder David Hagan equalised directly from a free-kick on the edge of the box.

Peterlee regained the lead in first half stoppage time with a header from Andrew Bowes, but Kieron McGinlay headed a 70th minute equaliser for Consett from the edge of the area.

Brandon won their third game inside a week with a 2-0 home win over Easington. The visitors hit the bar in the first half, but Brandon took control after the interval.

Recent signing Andrew Burton had two goals disallowed for offside before he broke through with five minutes remaining.

Brandon caught Easington on the break in the last minute when David Robson set up Micky Cunningham to score from ten yards. West Auckland had a 2-0 home win over Seaham Red Star who remain fifth from bottom.

West took the lead after 20 minutes when Roy Allen beat two men and set up Jonathan Milroy to fire home, but they had to wait until the last minute for their second goal when Milroy opened up the defence for Mark Wheldon to score.

Marske United beat Guisborough 2-0 in their local derby, thanks to two second-half goals. John Woods scored from the penalty spot on the hour after Ben Thompson had been fouled, then with ten minutes remaining midfielder Chris Reeve cleverly set up Thompson to fire the second.

Billingham Town scored twice in the second half to beat Chester-le-Street 3-2.

Town took the lead with an own goal, but then Martin Bowes and Steve Leadbitter hit back to give Chester a 2-1 half-time lead.

But Town striker Paul Rowntree scored his 47th goal of the season to equalise for Town then Carl Chillingsworth scored the winner. In the other first division game Tow Law and Whitley Bay drew 0-0.

* In the Unibond League, Bishop Auckland lost ground in their quest for third place when they were held to a 1-1 draw at Whitby yesterday.

Bishops took the lead after nine minutes through Danny Brunskill who later hit the bar.

Whitby were forced to change their keeper at half-time when Campbell was unable to continue with a back injury so defender David Goodchild took over between the posts.

Bishops had a couple of good chances to finish the game in the second half, but Micky Dunwell missed two good opportunities before Whitby levelled after 70 minutes when a long throw from the left by Dave Logan was flicked on for former Darlington striker Craig Skelton to drive in from six yards.

Elsewhere in the Unibond League Spennymoor continued their sad losing run when they lost 1-0 at home to Worksop.

Moors put up a good performance and had a couple of half chances in the first half to Rob Jones and Andrew Banks, but Paul Stafford got the winner for Worksop.