Spennymoor Town 1 Kettering 2.

Spennymoor suffered their second successive league defeat when they were beaten by a last minute goal at home to Kettering on Saturday.

Uncharacteristically, Moors led the game at one stage, but they allowed their opponents to come back and take the points to leave Moors in seventh place, level on points with Farsley, Southport and Altrincham, who visit the Brewery Field on Tuesday night. Moors have now lost four of their last five league matches.

Manager Jason Ainsley thought that his team’s game management was poor after Glen Taylor gave them the lead with his 18th goal of the season, and said; “I don’t think we deserved to win the game, but when you get in front, you think that you’re going to kick on.

“I thought we huffed and puffed. We started both halves all right. I thought the two new lads did really well, but for the winner their lad ran 80 yards up the pitch, hit a shot, and the ball took a deflection and went in. You shouldn’t concede in the last minute.

“The game was wide open. We have big players all across the spine, and for me, we didn’t manage the game well enough. I thought a draw would have been a fair result, but I don’t think we did enough to win the game. I don’t think we should have lost the game, but we were done by a sucker punch “We were gung-ho a little bit and getting caught down the sides. We weren’t good enough, we didn’t create enough chances because we hit the first man. We got in good positions in good areas, but we didn’t finish with a shot on goal. I don’t think their keeper has had to work hard enough.

“It was a disappointing day, because we had a chance to cement our place in the top six. We’ll take the criticism because we took the plaudits when we don’t get beat in fourteen games. WE must put things right on Tuesday against Altrincham.”

Moors, who gave debuts to new signings Tyler Forbes and Lewis Butroid, started promisingly enough with a header by Ben McKenna that went wide, and then Rob Ramshaw charged down the right and set up James Roberts, whose header was touched over the bar by Kettering keeper Paul White.

However, Kettering nearly scored at the other end from a long throw that Brett Solkhon couldn’t connect to in front of an open goal, then Aaron O’Connor headed over from a Marcus Kelly free kick.

Moors looked good to win the game when they took the lead just before the hour. They were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box, which Glen Taylor struck powerfully, and the ball took a deflection off a defender before it went in off the underside of the bar.

But Moors didn’t close the game down, and Kettering levelled just five minutes later, when Aaron O’Connor broke away quickly and crossed for full back Mattie Taylor, up supporting his attack, to head home at the far post.

Ainsley then went for a much-needed winner by putting Gavin Cogdon on for Mark Anderson, but it was Kettering who nearly got it with an overhead kick by O’Connor that was blocked by Carl Magnay.

At the other end, Moors skipper James Curtis saw a header saved, and that seemed to be it for chances in the game as it entered stoppage time.

However, Kettering caught Moors again deep in the last minute of stoppage time when sub Josh Law ran forward fired past Moors keeper Mattie Gould from the edge of the box.

Gould, Forbes, Butroid, Chandler, Magnay, Curtis, Roberts (sub Earing 86), Ramshaw, Taylor, Anderson (sub Cogdon 75), McKenna (sub Johnson 46).

Subs: Mason, Boyes .

Attendance 1,072.

In the BetVictor NPL Premier Division, South Shields are three points clear after they beat Mickleover 5-1 at Mariners Park. Whitby had a good 2-0 away win at Hyde, while Morpeth came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Buxton.

In the North West Division, Marske had a good 1-0 away win at Pontefract to put them into fifth place, while Dunston beat Tadcaster 1-0.