Bishop Auckland bounced back to form with a 3-0 win at Gateshead on Wednesday night. Third-placed Bishops took the lead when David Bayles scored with a right-foot shot from the edge of the box and Danny Mellanby fired a second before half-time. Bishops played some more good football in the second half, and finished the game off when Adrian Swan spilled Danny Brunskill's shot, and he scored from the rebound. Bishop Auckland are away to Marine in the semi final of the League Challenge Cup, on a date to be arranged. Lancaster City play the winners of the Belper/Droylsden tie in the other semi.

Bishops' away game at Lancaster next week has been brought from the Saturday afternoon, to the Friday night to avoid a clash with the England v Finland game the next day.

Spennymoor United lost 3-0 at home to Lancaster on Tuesday night. Chris Ward, one of the league's leading scorers, took his tally for the season to 36 with two of the goals. Spennymoor, meanwhile, must travel to Colwyn Bay for their rearranged league game on March 27.

Whitby drew 2-2 with Frickley at the Turnbull Ground, Dave Logan and Graham Robinson putting them into the lead before they were pegged back. Whitby have a hectic spell of games next week. They travel to Gateshead on Wednesday, play Gainsborough at the Turnbull Ground on Friday evening, then on the Sunday they are at home again to Hyde United. Hyde will be playing two games in 24 hours, as Spennymoor travel to meet them at 1pm on Saturday afternoon.