Harrogate Town 2 Lancaster City 2 THE nerves are jangling at Giant Axe as Lancaster recorded their fourth draw in their last five league games at struggling Harrogate Town on Saturday. And it was a controversial refereeing decision that handed lowly Harrogate a lifeline with City 2-0 ahead and cruising to victory. Lancaster, playing up the Harrogate slope in the first half, took the lead in the 17th minute when Mark Shirley rode a couple of tackles and crossed for Stuart Diggle who slotted the ball past Fenton in the Town net.

With both sides playing neat, passing football it was Harrogate who almost grabbed another goal before half-time when Gary Lormor fired against the crossbar following a corner.

City looked to have the game wrapped up 20 minutes into the second half when Peter Borrowdale beat the Harrogate offside trap and fired home a great goal despite the efforts of the stunned defenders.

That two-goal advantage lasted less than a minute. Harrogate were awarded what the City players thought was an indirect free-kick on the edge of the box but when Richard Ward's curled a shot hit the net the referee signalled a goal.

Even with the Harrogate players lifted by that goal, it looked as though Lancaster would be leaving with the points until Steve Pidgeon slid in for the equaliser in the last minute of the game.

The Blues made a desperate attempt to wrest the points back in stoppage time but to no avail. A win for second-placed Lincoln United on Saturday means they can now close the gap at the top to just one point should they win the two games they still have in hand over the Blues. TEAM: Thornley, Curwen, Flannery, Eatough, Key, Whittaker, Trainor, Sharples, Diggle, Borrowdale, Shirley. SUBS: Moran, Williams, Gelling. Hyde United 5 Lancaster City 1 PREMIER Division high-flyers Hyde United proved just too strong for a weakened Lancaster City side in this Unibond League Challenge Cup tie last Thursday evening. The home side were two up within 12 minutes and never looked like succumbing to a City side missing Byron, Stimpson, Whittaker, Hartley, Borrowdale and Shirley. Any hopes City may have had of getting back into the game were dashed in the first minute of the second half when Kimmins was awarded a penalty for a foul by Mark Thornley and Nolan converted from the spot.

Vardon made it four with his second of the game before the Blues managed to get on the scoresheet, Diggle rounding the 'keeper to score a typical goal.

The scoring was complete after 76 minutes when Kimmins notched his second. TEAM: Thornley, Curwen, Chilton, Williams, Eatough, Key, Trainor, Sharples, Diggle, Flannery, Moran. SUBS: Gelling, Taylor.

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