Birtley Town overcame a potentially difficult game at Guisborough Black Swan to enhance their chances of clinching the championship and promotion to the Arngrove Northern League.

David Campbell gave the home side the lead right on the interval before two goals in the last 20 minutes earned Birtley three precious points.

A controversially awarded corner was met by Kevin Murphy and with just a couple of minutes remaining Chris Hepple pounced for the winner following a misunderstanding in the Black Swan defence.

Guisborough remain third and Birtley are second, still seven points behind Whitehaven although they have four games in hand.

The Cumbrians enjoyed a comfortable victory at Harton and Westoe scoring three times in the second period to finish 4-1.

Wayne Collins rifled a hat-trick with Stephen Hewitt also on target.

Cleadon SC are fourth but their hopes of ending in the top three just about evaporated with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Cleator Moor Celtic at Jack Clark Park.

Gary George opened the scoring with a speculative free kick on 45 minutes and two minutes into the second period David Miller added a second goal following a corner.

Just before the end Lee Dunn completed a poor afternoon for the home team.

Willington led Windscale with goals by Andrew Howard and Stephen Ackerley (og) but still lost 3-2 at Hall Lane.

Kevin Law threw the Cumbrians a lifeline on 69 minutes and two goals in the final eight minutes from Darren Donald and James Dolan proved decisive.

After going behind to an Aaron Robertson strike, Teesside Athletic rallied to defeat Annfield Plain 2-1 courtesy of James Kesterton and Steve Hodgson while an only goal from Gareth Hill on 75 minutes was sufficient for Ryhope CW at Wolviston.

Bottom of the table New Marske took Hartlepool to the wire before going down 2-1. Craig Mendum pounced on a defensive mix-up to give them a 43rd-minute advantage but almost immediately Martin Robinson equalised.

Just before the end another defensive mistake enabled Andy Vickers to score the winner.