The Dolly Blues will want to match this result and performance when they face Blyth Spartans away on Tuesday. City are still looking for their first away points of the season and as Mark Thornley is predicted to recover from his shoulder knock by then, a full strength squad is on the cards for this tricky fixture. Lancaster came away from Tuesday night's battle with Spennymoor having secured a well-deserved victory. Despite having most of the possession the Blues found themselves 2-0 down after the first half, partly due to defensive errors and bad passes. However, Lancaster made a thrilling comeback and kept their 100 per cent home record intact.

Spennymoor nearly scored as early as the 9th minute when Dean O'Hara's cross was headed past the 'keeper by their man of the match Paul Richardson. However Lancaster's main man, Steve Hartley, was on the line and cleared the ball off the line.

Spennymoor opened their account against the run of play in the 37th minute. Gary O'Hara crossed the ball to Paul Richardson who took the ball down well and fired in an unstoppable shot.

The visitors added insult to injury when a pass back to Dean Martin was not dealt cleared. He kept the ball too long and allowed Spennymoor captain Dave Robson to tackle him and fire in a goal from just outside the 18-yard box.

Manager Gordon Raynor must have read the Blues the riot act at half time as they emerged a completely different team. They ironed out their earlier problems. Moves flowed with inch-perfect passing and they couldn't have hoped for a better performance.

A neat passing move from one goalmouth to the other in the 50th minute led to a through ball to Ian Dring which he fired into the bottom corner with ease - bringing the game and the crowd to life.

The fans were cheering even more when the Blues levelled in the 63rd minute. Peter Craven fired a free kick from the half way line way into the box and that was majestically flicked in to the top corner by Dave Lancaster.

Giant Axe erupted when City eventually took the lead. Another Peter Craven free kick from the halfway line was fired into the box. That was flicked in to the box and then lashed into the net by Scott Bairstow.

As long as the Blues can travel with such form they could be up there by the end of the season.

Lancaster: Booth, Craven, Graham, Bairstow, Jones (c), Flannery, Hartley, Martin, Lancaster, Dobie, Dring (Wilson 87).

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.